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In view of the very successful and ongoing NASA flights Ingenuity Mars helicopter, engineers look to the future air vehicles of the red planet.
One of the concepts is the Mars Science Helicopter, advocated as a way to significantly expand the exploration area on March – including possible deep dives in the caves of the red planet.
Researchers have already gleaned a lot of technical information about Ingenuity’s above-Earth flights, steadily strengthening its capabilities. Now they want to use this data to push for the development of a new air system for the Mars investigation.
Video: Watch NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter fly in 3D
Blow up the doors
“Ingenuity is a technological demonstrator. Our main goal, our main directive, is to prove that we can fly on Mars … “said Theodore Tzanetos, Ingenuity operations manager, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.
Tzanetos provided a review of Ingenuity’s flights to date and a look at future releases, and he also laid out the basics of a possible Mars tracking plane. He spoke at a virtual meeting on June 21 of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), which is responsible for providing the scientific data necessary for NASA to plan and prioritize activities of exploration of Mars.
The ingenuity came about thanks to a small but passionate team, said Tzanetos, which involved JPL, AeroVironment, Inc., NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, Qualcomm, Langley Research Center of the NASA in Virginia and SolAero.
Since Ingenuity’s first flight on April 19, “we’ve collected a treasure trove of engineering data,” Tzanetos said. “Each of the flights thereafter was built on this basis [first] Success.”
Since Tuesday July 13, Ingenuity has flew nine times on the red planet.
Extended mission
Ingenuity made its maiden flight in April, a matter of about 30 seconds from takeoff to landing. The small helicopter made four more flights over the following weeks, concluding its original technology demonstration mission in early May.
Since then, the craft has flown in a extended mission phase designed to show the reconnaissance potential of Martian helicopters. The plan is to fly about twice a month, with a smaller team of operators here on Earth.
“The goal is to try and become as efficient as possible,” Tzanetos said at his MEPAG conference. “We’re really starting to spread our wings, so to speak, in distances, flight times and height above ground.”
Meanwhile, the flights of the airborne machine from Mars yielded other firsts. One of these is the use of helicopter navigation imagery merged with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images of Jezero Crater, where Ingenuity landed with NASA. Perseverance rover last February.
This showed that Ingenuity is capable of producing high resolution images downwards. For example, Ingenuity operators discovered, after the fact, that color images of the Séítah de Jezero geological unit – a sandy expanse of land considered difficult for Perseverance to cross – led to “fortuitous scientific targeting.” of value to rover operators, Tzanetos said. . “The ability to recognize is what we hope to explore a bit more in the coming weeks.”
Ingenuity controllers would eventually want to push for flights covering 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) of ground each, which would require the helicopter to stay aloft for up to three minutes. “It would really be pushing the boundaries of what this technology demonstrator is capable of in terms of a flight vehicle,” Tzanetos said.
Related: NASA Ingenuity’s Mars helicopter could continue to fly in Martian skies for months
Cave diving
As for the future of Martian rotorcraft, one idea on the table is a next-generation six-rotor “hexacopter” platform.
“We call it the Mars Science Helicopter,” Tzanetos said of the concept, which is not an official NASA mission at this point. “What science is allowed by adding this aerial dimension? The scientific payloads in the 4 lbs are currently being evaluated. at 11-lb. range (1.8 to 5 kilograms) carried by a hexacopter that can travel approximately 10 km (6 miles) per flight.
“We can reach places that rovers cannot access, like cliff-side walls or difficult to cross terrain, or even caves,” Tzanetos added. In addition, it is possible to customize an air craft science mission to carry different payload masses, adjust hover times and flight ranges, he said.
“We are open to ideas and new concepts. Insert your mission… with your favorite concept for the future rotorcraft on Mars,” Tzanetos told MEPAG attendees.
Leonard David is the author of the book “Moon Rush: The New Space Race”, published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has reported on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
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