[akiselev]

> MSH would be able to communicate with orbit directly and would not need rover or lander support.

Does that mean it wouldn't be powered by an RTG like the last few missions? Or do you just mean that the MSH will have its own comms independent of a supporting rover/lander?

[BotJunkie]

JPL has run the numbers on this as part of the engineering study. The solar panel shown in the concept image (in the center) charges a battery that gives MSH a 10km range or 5 minutes of hover time after charging for a day. It would have its own comms that could reach orbit.

[akiselev]

Ooof that's hard to swallow :(. Would the MSH be so productive that it makes up for the limited operating time? Is mission planning so meticulous that it would be a bottle neck anyway? What about winter?

Whats the power budget for instruments during/after flight?

[minitoar]

For reference the rovers can do 100 meters a day. 10km in one day is huge.

[XorNot]

Yeah I was going to post this too: the range of a helicopter like that is massive. Well into the "find an interesting feature and follow it" range.

[BotJunkie]

This is all the next step. If they end up putting together an actual mission proposal, they can factor in power budgets for specific science instruments, sun angles and seasonality at the landing site, etc, but they're not quite there yet.

Not sure what you mean by limited operating time, though- if you mean that MSH has to spend 50% of its time charging, that's true, but relative to a rover, it can travel so much farther and faster that JPL is arguing it more than makes up for it.