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- So what does NASA do to find
out how a spacecraft will act

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before it's even built?

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Find out next on "Real World."

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[music playing]

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- NASA is designing a
helicopter

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to actually fly on Mars.

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- The Mars Helicopter is what's
called

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a technology demonstrator.

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Its sole goal is to show we
can actually do this mission--

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can we fly a helicopter on
Mars?

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JPL has the primary
responsibility

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for the Mars 2020 Rover and the
Mars Helicopter mission.

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And they branch out to
expertise across

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all of the NASA centers to
bring that together

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so that we have a successful
mission.

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- But Mars is different from
Earth,

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so how do these engineers test
their ideas

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without actually having to go
to Mars?

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Well, the answer is math.

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Math is not just a set of
symbols and numbers.

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It's the language of the
universe.

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And it's also a way for us to
take complex ideas

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and turn them into equations
that are then solvable.

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To understand how this is done,

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we're gonna talk to Dr. Brian
Allan,

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who's doing mathematical
modeling

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for the Mars Helicopter.

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So you build models of the
helicopter

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inside your computer with
equations that will translate

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to an actual working helicopter
on the planet Mars.

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- Right, so here I do
computational simulations

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of helicopters and rotorcraft.

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- So is it much different--a
helicopter on Mars--

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than here on Earth?

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- There's a big difference.

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One of the key problems is this
thin atmosphere.

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The density of the air is very
low,

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so we want to look at the lift,

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and we want to make sure that
the helicopter is generating

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enough lift in this thin
atmosphere...

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- Right.
- And is able to carry

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the payload that they're
interested in carrying.

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- So when you build a
simulation,

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there are certain quantities
that have

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the ability to change, right,
these variables...

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- Right.

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- So what are variables in your
particular simulation?

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- So in those simulations, we
look at

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the density of the air...

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- Right.

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- As well as we're solving the
momentum, the velocity,

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so now we can--we can take
these equations.

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We can look at them, we can
simulate them,

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and we can redesign, whereas in
the past before, like,

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simulations,
you would have to build it,

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test it, try it, you know,
okay, redesign it,

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and build it, test it,
so it would be a lot longer

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without computational
simulations.

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- And how does gravity on Mars
compare?

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- Well, gravity is a little bit
more than a third

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of Earth's gravity.

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- Okay, so I could dunk on
Mars.

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- [laughs]

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- Is that--that's what we're
getting at?

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- We can get a much higher
jump.

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- [laughs] You can jump a lot
higher, yeah.

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Complex equations will help us
see how the Mars Helicopter

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will function when it flies on
the Red Planet.

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But equations like these can't
be solved

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using just pencil and paper.

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Researchers rely on
state-of-the-art computers

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and specialized software to
build mathematical models.

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And places like the new
Katherine G. Johnson

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Computational Research Facility
will give scientists

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and engineers the tools they
need to develop

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future missions to the Moon,
to Mars,

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or wherever our imagination
takes us.

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