The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.SpaceX was in the middle of the successful launch of a Bangladeshi communications satellite when NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the Mars 2020 rover mission would also carry a small, helicopter drone. The Motley Fool recommends AeroVironment. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Must-Read Trump Quote on Social Securityġ0 Reasons Why I'm Selling All of My Apple Stock The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss That kind of publicity is probably priceless - and for AeroVironment shareholders, this is literally out-of-this-world good news.ģ Stocks That Are Absurdly Cheap Right Nowĥ Warren Buffett Principles to Remember in a Volatile Stock Market Again, I don't know how you put a price tag on the reputation points AeroVironment will score from building the only aircraft ever to fly on Mars - and of having its name mentioned every single time NASA announces a new discovery by the Mars Helicopter. In addition to whatever the company earns from building the Mars Helicopter in the first place, for every 2% of Mars 2020's operating budget that AeroVironment captures, its own revenue stream will grow by more than 1%.Īnd then there's the publicity value. But it wouldn't take much to move the needle for AeroVironment, which recorded revenues of less than $230 million last year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. How much money might we be talking about here? I don't know for sure. (NASA can hardly be expected to operate a novel piece of equipment like the first drone on Mars without some help from the company that built most of the drone's parts.) And while, again, it's unlikely AeroVironment's share of this money will be great, it will surely be something. That's roughly $160 million per Earth year. But once on Mars, SpaceNews estimates, NASA will be spending $300 million per Martian year to fund operations of the Mars 2020 rover, and its drone. Presumably, AeroVironment's Mars Helicopter will represent just a small portion of that initial cost. Here's why:Īccording to, the Mars 2020 mission is likely to cost roughly $2.1 billion to develop, build, and launch. But it's even better news for investors in AeroVironment stock, which came under savage attack last year from short-seller Spruce Point Capital, which criticized everything from AeroVironment's weak profits, to how it accounted for them, to the motivations of its management.Ī vote of confidence from NASA could go a long way toward dispelling that - and to filling AeroVironment's coffers as well. To anyone who grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' or Robert Heinlein's tales of machines soaring through the skies of Barsoom (Mars), this is grand news all on its own. That experience makes AeroVironment arguably the company best suited to build drones capable of flying in Mars' exceedingly thin atmosphere as well. In 2001, AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) built and flew for NASA its Helios Prototype drone - a lightweight solar-powered flying wing with a wingspan of 247 feet - to an unofficial world-record altitude of 96,863 feet, where it flew for more than 40 minutes. Fortunately, there's one company that has some experience building drones that fly at such rarefied heights. Since drones require air to provide the lift that permits flying, this poses a problem. There is, however, one difficulty with flying drones on Mars: air - or rather the lack of it.Īt surface level, Mars' atmospheric density is roughly equal to the density of Earth's atmosphere at an elevation of 100,000 feet - roughly four times the height of Mount Everest. By tucking a drone aboard the Mars 2020 rover, however, NASA hopes to speed things up a bit to get out and see more stuff. Thus, Curiosity is trundling along at the leisurely pace of roughly 2 mpy (miles per year). Since landing on Mars in early August 2012, NASA reports, Curiosity has traveled a grand total of less than 12 miles. The top speed of NASA's Curiosity rover, for example, is less than 1/10th of a mile per hour. Speeding things up on MarsĮxploring Mars is important work - but it's not speedy work. AeroVironment CEO Wahid Nawabi showcases a model of the planned Mars Helicopter. "Mars needs drones!" (And AeroVironment will build them). Man standing behind table with Mars Helicopter drone sitting on it
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