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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is targeting the very first attempt at power and controlled flight by an aircraft on another planet no earlier than April 8.
At a press conference Tuesday, members of the California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) explained that there are still “a number of challenges ahead” and that every step of the process is unprecedented.
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“As with anything helicopter-related, this type of deployment has never been done before,” said Farah Alibay, Mars Helicopter integration manager for the Perseverance rover. “Once we start the deployment, there is no going back. All activities are tightly coordinated, irreversible, and dependent on each other. If there is even a hint that something is wrong. not as expected, we may decide to suspend for a [Martian day] or more until we have a better idea of what’s going on. “
Before Ingenuity can even attempt to fly in the Martian atmosphere, the 4-pound rotorcraft must first be deployed.
On March 21, the Perseverance Mars rover – which transported Ingenuity to the Red Planet – dropped his debris shield who protected the helicopter and is currently en route to the 33 feet by 33 feet “aerodrome” where Ingenuity will try its first flight.
Once the rover reaches its flying zone, it will take about a week for the helicopter to be operational.
Mars’ helicopter delivery system will spin and release the helicopter approximately 5 inches above the surface. Perseverance then has 25 hours to move away towards its “rover observation site”.
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Ingenuity – which will be self-contained and charged by its own solar panel – has a one-month window for up to five test flights.
“We’ll go through a number of commissioning days – about a week – where we test our sensors, we test our solo mechanism, we test the motors to make sure they are running properly. And, we will be very methodical and event driven. as this engineering experience unfolds, ”said Bob Balaram, chief engineer on Mars Helicopter at JPL.
“And then we’ll be at a point where we take our first flight, and then gradually take on more flights once we understand and analyze all the behavior of that first flight,” he said.
Last week, JPL announced that he had chosen a flying area just north of the Perseverance landing site in Jezero Crater.
At the conference, the team of scientists announced that they would name the venue after their “colleague, mentor and leader”, Jakob van Zyl.
Van Zyl died of a heart attack in August last year and joined JPL in 1986. Ingenuity was one of his last projects and Bobby Braun – JPL director for planetary science – said that the engineer was the “driving force” of their team.
Once the rover is loaded, has survived a freezing Martian night, and is ready to try to fly, Perseverance will receive and relay flight instructions to the helicopter.
“Several factors will determine the precise time of flight, including modeling local wind models and measurements taken by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) onboard Perseverance. Ingenuity will run its rotors at 2,537 rpm / min and, if all the final self-checks look good, take off, “NASA wrote in a press release Tuesday.” After climbing at a speed of about 3 feet per second … the helicopter will hover at 10 feet … above the surface for up to 30 seconds. Then the Mars helicopter will descend and land on the Martian surface. “
Several hours later, Perseverance will transmit data and possibly images and video from its cameras to the JPL team to determine whether their first flight was successful or not.
Using what is provided to them, engineers will then understand the best way to proceed.
“Every step we have taken since starting this journey six years ago is uncharted territory in aviation history,” said Balaram. “And while deploying to the surface will be a big challenge, surviving that first night on Mars alone, without the rover protecting it and keeping it energized, will be even greater.”
What could possibly go wrong?
If there is an error or error, the process may take longer. Assuming ingenuity stays overnight, the team will spend the next few Martian days shaking the rotor blades, testing the rotor system, and verifying the performance of the inertial measurement unit.
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Worries aside, it all makes history.
In recognition of this, a small amount of material that covered one of the wings of the Wright Brothers’ Flyer is on board Ingenuity – taped under the helicopter’s solar panel with electrical tape.
Interestingly, the NASA Apollo 11 crew stole a different piece of material and a piece of wood from the Wright Flyer during the moon landing in July 1969.
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