cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/49933761

If there ever was a hero of unmanned vehicles, I think it might have to be mars helicopters, so capes make sense to me.

NASA’s SkyFall mission will send a trio of mini rotorcraft to Mars equipped with ground penetrating radar technology which happens to look like little capes. These uniquely designed swaths of fabric look decidedly strange or even accidental in new videos from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that show the little drones practice landing. But these capes are actually flexible antennae that will allow the craft to peer beneath the Red Planet’s surface in search of water ice.