Milestone on Mars: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter survives first cold night on its own

NASA’s Perseverance rover and the small Ingenuity helicopter have something of a parent-child relationship. The rotorcraft spent its first few weeks on Mars nestled in the rover’s belly, gaining power and staying warm. Now the ambitious helicopter has survived a brutal Martian night on its own.

Basically Ingenuity moved out and went to college.

Perseverance dropped Ingenuity to the ground over the weekend and stepped back to allow the helicopter’s solar panel to collect sunlight. The first night was a big worry for the Ingenuity team, but NASA announced on Monday that the little flying machine had cleared the first big hurdle of its era of independence.

NASA called the helicopter’s survival a “major milestone”. Mars turns brutally cold, reaching as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) in Jezero Crater. That’s enough to mess up Ingenuity’s electronics and batteries, but the chopper survived thanks to insulation, heaters, and enough power to keep itself warm.

Ingenuity is a high-risk, high-return technology demonstration. NASA hopes it will represent the first powered and controlled flight to another planet. Perseverance will act as a witness from a neglected place.

The next step is for Ingenuity to check its systems, release the retainers on its rotor blades, and test the blades and motors. While it originally envisioned the first hover test flight to be April 8 at the earliest, NASA is now looking at April 11. If this goes well, further flight tests will follow.

Ingenuity aims to make aviation history. He has a small piece of fabric from the famous Wright brothers plane on board as he contemplates his own Kitty Hawk moment on Mars.

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