China’s Concept for a Martian Helicopter Seems Awfully Familiar

For sure, it’s a blatant copy of NASA’s design, but there’s no mistaking China’s intentions in space. The country is making rapid progress, and it’s quickly catching up to the other major players in space exploration.

China has sent rovers to the Moon and Mars, and it’s currently building its own space station, called Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”). More ambitiously, China hopes to send a crewed mission to Mars in 2033 and even build an “ultra-large spacecraft” that would extend for miles (yep, you read that right).

China, of course, is not the only copycat when it comes to space. The Soviets had their own Space Shuttle (known as Buran, but it never flew to space), and Russia recently disclosed its design for a reusable rocket, which looked exactly like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, you must sometimes join ‘em. Maybe in future NASA might copy a Chinese or Russian design, but only time will tell.

More: NASA’s Helicopter Totally Flipped Out During Its Sixth Flight on Mars