Liftoff!
On July 30th, 2020, Perseverance (nicknamed Percy) lifted off in an Atlas V rocket, headed towards Mars. Along with it was the beach ball-sized Mars Ingenuity helicopter in the rover's underbelly.
It took about seven months for Perseverance to arrive at Mars and landed at Jezero Crater on February 18th, 2021.
Preparing to Fly
The scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) drove Perseverance around, checking for the perfect spot to deploy the Mars helicopter and to fly it.
Finally, on March 21st, 2021, the debris shield was dropped followed by the helicopter being dropped on April 3rd, 2021.
After deployment, the rover drove approximately 100 m (330 ft) away from the drone to allow it a safe "buffer zone" in which it flew in April 2021. The Ingenuity helicopter is expected to fly up to five times during its 30-day test campaign starting in April 2021, early in the rover's mission. Each flight is planned to be at altitudes ranging from 3–5 m (10–16 ft) above the ground.
Ingenuity's rotor blades were successfully unlocked on April 8th, 2021 and it performed a low-speed rotor spin test. Spinning at 50 rpm. A high-speed spin test was attempted on 9 April but failed due to the expiration of a watchdog timer, a measure to protect the helicopter from incorrect operation in unforeseen conditions. On 12 April, a software update with a patch to correct the problem was announced. On April 17, 2021, Ingenuity successfully passed the full-speed spin test.
First Flight!
On April 19th, 2021 the helicopter successfully performed the first powered flight on Mars, lasting 39.1 seconds. It rose vertically about three meters, hovered, rotated in place 96 degrees in a planned maneuver, and landed. Data confirming the success of the test flight with the first photographs from Ingenuity mid-flight were received later.
Other flights
On 22 April 2021, Ingenuity completed its 2nd flight, lasting 51.9 seconds. It rose vertically to about 5 meters and hovered momentarily at that altitude. It then performed a 5-degree tilt, allowing the rotors to accelerate it 2 meters sideways, come to a stop, hover in place, and then made turns to point its camera in different directions. Ingenuity then headed back to the center of the airfield to land.
Design and Tech
Since the atmosphere on Mars is only 1⁄100 as dese as that of Earth's, it is much more difficult for an aircraft to generate lift, a difficulty only partially offset by Mars' lower gravity (about ⅓ of Earth's). Flying close to Mars' surface has been described as equivalent to flying at more than 87,000 ft (27,000 m) above Earth, an altitude that has never been reached by existing helicopters. Made mostly of carbon dioxide, Mars' atmosphere requires blade rotation speeds of 2,400 rpm for Ingenuity to stay aloft, about five times what's needed on Earth.
The helicopter uses contra-rotating coaxial rotors about 1.2 m (4 ft) in diameter. Its payload is a high-resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data to the Perseverance rover. Although it is an aircraft, it was constructed to spacecraft specifications to endure the g-force and vibration during launch. It also includes radiation-resistant systems capable of operating in the frigid environment of Mars. The inconsistent Mars magnetic field precludes the use of a compass for navigation, so it uses a solar tracker camera integrated into JPL's visual-inertial navigation system. Some additional inputs include gyros, visual odometry, tilt sensors, altimeter, and hazard detectors. It was designed to use solar panels to recharge its batteries, which are six Sony Li-ion cells with 35–40 Wh (130–140 kJ) of battery energy capacity.
The helicopter uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with a Linux operating system. Among other functions, this processor controls the visual navigation algorithm via a velocity estimate derived from features tracked with a black-and-white downward-facing navigation camera or horizon-facing terrain camera.
The communication system is designed to relay data at 250 kbit/s over distances of up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft).
More on the Mars Helicopter
In April 2020, the vehicle was named Ingenuity by Vaneeza Rupani, a girl in the 11th grade at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, who submitted an essay into NASA's "Name the Rover" contest.
Its mass is just under 1.8 kg (4.0 lb)and JPL has specified that it is planned to have a design life of five flights on Mars. NASA has invested about US$80 million to build Ingenuity and about US$5 million to operate the helicopter.
A small piece of the wing cloth from the Wright brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer is attached to a cable underneath Ingenuity's solar panel.
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