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2. Mars will not allow Ingenuity to attempt the first controlled and powered flight to another planet.
Because Mars’ atmosphere is so thin, Ingenuity is designed to be lightweight, with rotor blades that are much larger and spin much faster than what would be required for an Ingenuity mass helicopter on Earth.
The Red Planet also has temperatures beyond the bones, with nights as cold as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) at Jezero Crater, the landing site of the rover and helicopter. These temperatures will push the original design limits of commercially available parts used in Ingenuity. Tests on Earth at predicted temperatures indicate that Ingenuity’s parts should perform as expected, but the team is eagerly awaiting the real test on Mars.
“Mars isn’t exactly pulling the welcome mat,” said Tim Canham, Ingenuity’s operations manager at JPL. “One of the first things Ingenuity has to do when it arrives on Mars is survive its first night.”
3. Ingenuity relies on the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission for safe passage to Mars and for operations on the surface of the Red Planet.
Ingenuity is nestled on the side under the belly of the Perseverance rover with a blanket to protect it from debris raised during landing. The rover and helicopter are securely housed in a shell-shaped spaceship entry capsule during the 293 million mile (471 million km) journey to Mars. The Mars 2020 spacecraft’s power system periodically charges Ingenuity’s batteries on the way.
To reach the Martian surface, ingenuity accompanies perseverance when it lands. The rover’s entry, descent, and landing system includes a supersonic parachute, new “brains” to autonomously avoid hazards, and components for the Heavenly Crane maneuver, which lowers the rover to Mars from of a downhill vehicle. Only about 50% of attempts to land on Mars, by any space agency, have been successful.
Once a suitable site to deploy the helicopter is found, the rover’s Mars helicopter delivery system releases the landing cover, rotates the helicopter into the legs-down configuration, and gently drops Ingenuity to the surface in the first months after landing. Throughout the helicopter’s commissioning and flight test campaign, the rover will support round-trip communications from Earth. The rover team also plans to collect footage of Ingenuity.
4. Ingenuity is smart for a little robot.
Delays are an integral part of communicating with spacecraft over interplanetary distances, meaning that Ingenuity’s flight controllers at JPL will not be able to control the helicopter with a joystick. In fact, they will not be able to see the technical data or images of each flight long after the flight.
Ingenuity will therefore make some of its own decisions based on parameters defined by its engineers on Earth. The helicopter has some kind of programmable thermostat, for example, that will keep it warm on Mars. During the flight, Ingenuity will analyze sensor data and images of the terrain to ensure it stays on the flight path designed by project engineers.
5. The Ingenuity team counts success one step at a time.
Given the experimental nature of Ingenuity, the team has a long list of milestones the helicopter must achieve before it can take off and land in the spring of 2021. The team will celebrate each milestone:
- Survive the cruise to Mars and land on the Red Planet
- Safe surface deployment from Perseverance’s belly
- Stay warm independently during extremely cold Martian nights
- Charge independently with the solar panel at the top of its rotors
- Successful communication to and from the helicopter via a subsystem known as the Mars Helicopter Base Station on the rover
If the first experimental flight test on another planet is successful, the Ingenuity team will attempt further test flights.
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