![]() ![]() NASA’s pioneering Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to outperform its design specifications, having now notched up more than 50 record-breaking forays across the Red Planet’s surface, 10 times as many flights as originally planned for. This view shows dust accumulation on the vehicle. ![]() The rover and helicopter were launched from earth on 30 July 2020.NASA’s Perseverance rover glimpsed the Ingenuity helicopter earlier this month after the rotorcraft’s 50th flight. If Ingenuity were to topple over, its blades would likely be badly damaged, meaning an early end to the programme, he adds. While the craft had been tested in a special chamber on earth prior to rocketing to Mars, actual atmospheric conditions will vary. “The biggest challenge is flying the thin atmosphere of Mars, which has its own dynamics and winds,” Balaran says. A weather team will help determine if and when conditions allow for test flights. In addition, winds can be unpredictable, he adds. Mars has about one-third of earth’s gravity but just 1% of its atmospheric density at the surface. ![]() NASA remains unsure how the craft will be affected by the red planet’s environment, Balaran says. “We are focusing on demonstrating basic capability to hover, then traversing a longer distance down flight zone,” Grip says. The team aims to introduce more complex manoeuvres, and fly Ingenuity to 16ft altitude, during a flight-test campaign planned to last 31 days. ![]() “This will be, by far, the most important flight that we plan to do,” Grip says. Ingenuity’s flight zone is 90m long, engineers say Ingenuity will take off and climb to 10ft, turn, hover for 30sec and land. The first flight will be straightforward but not simple, says chief pilot Havard Grip. Night temperatures on Mars can sink to -90 degrees Celsius (-130 degrees Fahrenheit), “which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components”. “During Martian daytime, the planet’s surface receives only about half the amount of solar energy that reaches earth during its daytime,” JPL says. Free of Perseverance, Ingenuity will deploy solar cells, generating electricity to power internal heaters intended to prevent the drone from freezing. The rover will then retreat, rolling about 60m to an elevated overlook from where it will observe flights. Perseverance will deploy Ingenuity by dropping it on a 10 x 10m patch of the planet’s surface – an area “chosen for its flatness and lack of obstructions”. Ingenuity, now housed within the “belly” of Perseverance, is a small robotic rotorcraft that weighs about 1.8kg (4lb) and has a rotor diameter of approximately 1.2m (4ft), NASA says. “And while getting deployed to the surface will be a big challenge, surviving that first night on Mars alone, without the rover protecting it and keeping it powered, will be an even bigger one.” “Every step we have taken since this journey began six years ago has been uncharted territory in the history of aircraft,” Balaram says. Perseverance, the Mars rover with which Ingenuity travelled to the planet and to which remains attached, arrived on Mars on 18 February, and has been conducting initial tests in the weeks since.
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