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More than a century after the first flight of an engine on Earth, the American space agency (NASA) intends to prove the possibility of making a vehicle fly on another planet.
In this context, the “Ingenuity” helicopter, transported by the “Mars 2020” mission, which arrives on Mars on Thursday, will strive to achieve a great feat, which flies in an atmosphere with a density not exceeding 1% of the density of the earth’s atmosphere.
Very light helicopter
The ingenuity actually looks like a big drone. The main challenge for the engineers was to make it as light as possible so that it could rise in a very low density atmosphere. The small helicopter ultimately weighs less than 1.8 kg. The helicopter consists of four superimposed legs, a frame and two propellers. It measures 1.2 meters from one end of the blade to the other. The fans spin at 2400 RPM, which is five times faster than a regular raft.
Ingenuity is equipped with solar panels to recharge its batteries, and much of the energy is used for heating (the temperature on Mars is 90 degrees below zero at night). It can also take photos and videos.
The helicopter was placed under the belly of the mobile robot “Perseverance”, which takes over the main mission. Once “Perseverance” reaches Mars, the helicopter will fall to the surface of the planet, then fly over and away from it.
– exits for 90 seconds
The plan called for five sorties of progressive difficulty over a period of one month at the start of the mission.
The helicopter can rise up to five meters and travel up to 300 meters, but it will cover a much smaller distance on the first test.
And each trip can take up to a minute and a half, and “that’s not a bit compared to the 12 seconds” it took for the first powered flight on Earth, according to NASA.
Due to the transmission delay of about 20 minutes between Earth and Mars, there is no control stick for the helicopter, but will fly independently. Commands will be sent to it, but it will then be managed through a series of sensors that help it navigate. Flight results will not be received until some time after expiration.
– What is the point?
This experiment is what NASA calls an illustrative mission, as it has no other scientific purpose than to prove the possibility of flying on Mars, and to collect data on how a vehicle flew on another planet. than Earth.
In the future, such vehicles could “pave the way for a whole new era of Mars exploration,” says project lead engineer Bob Palaram. For example, they may be able to reach places inaccessible to roaming robots (above canyons …).
It is also possible, for example, to imagine another role for this one, like going to bring back samples deposited by previous missions and send them back to a base, like the samples that the mobile robot “Perseverance” is supposed to start taking. collect in the next step of the mission “March 2020”.
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