The little Ingenuity that could -- a 4 pound, dual-rotor, solar-powered helicopter-- continues to operate on the surface of Mars nearly a year after its first successful flight in the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere.
The next flight, scheduled for as early as Saturday, March 19, will be Ingenuity’s 22d. The first was on April 19, 2021, lasting 39.1 seconds. The most recent 21st flight on March 11 lasted 129 seconds and covered 405 yards. All told, Ingenuity has logged 38 minutes in flight and traveled 2.9 miles over 21 flights.
Ingenuity Chief Pilot Havard Grip of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been logging each of the flights by hand in a logbook.
“I remember thinking when this all started, we’d be lucky to have three entries and immensely fortunate to get five,” he said yesterday in a NASA blog.
“Now at the rate we’re going, I’m going to need a second book.”
NASA engineers have frequently described Ingenuity’s durability in the Mars environment as remarkable, including the ability to rely on commercial parts including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.
“Less than a year ago we didn’t even know if powered, controlled flight of an aircraft at Mars was possible,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA announced yesterday it is extending Ingenuity’s flight operations mission through September to act as a scout of ground conditions for the Perseverance rover’s second science campaign.
“We are looking forward to Ingenuity’s involvement in Perseverance’s second science campaign,” Zurbuchen said. “Such a transformation of mindset in such a short period is simply amazing, and one of the most historic in the annals of air and space exploration.”
Ingenuity has received software upgrades to conduct future flights that require it to travel farther and higher over a longer period of time. They include the ability to climb above a previous limit of 50 feet and the ability to change airspeed during flight. Future upgrades may include addition of terrain elevation maps and landing-hazard-avoidance capability.
Previous flights have been over relatively flat terrain, but future flights will bring it near jagged cliffs, angled surfaces and boulders to support the Perseverance rover’s exploration of the ancient river delta of Jezero Crater. In addition to evaluating its capabilities to support future Mars air vehicle designs, it will help Perseverance engineers assess areas of scientific importance, perhaps taking images of geologic features or scouting landing zones.
Perseverance is collecting and caching rocks and dust to detect microbial evidence of prehistoric life. The materials will be saved aboard Perseverance until a future mission retrieves them for study on Earth.
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