PasadenaNASA has no Mars lander or rover planned.
Its stopgap, three helicopters, can’t drill, sample or cache what they find.
Landing is the expensive risk; helicopters skip it, spinning rotors past Mach 1 in Mars’ thin air.
SkyFall could launch as soon as late 2028, riding a nuclear-propulsion test mission.
How each outlet framed it
- Ars Technica
- NASA pivots from landers/rovers to aerial drones; SkyFall helicopters (2028) pioneering Mars exploration mode enabled by Ingenuity success
Sources: Ars Technica