TAKE OFF, EH
INGENUITY HELICOPTER NEXT FLIGHT: NASA ISN'T DONE WITH THE MARS COPTER
The short but successful flight will set the stage of future exploration of other planets. But what happens to Ingenuity now?
PASSANT RABIE
NASA’S INGENUITY HELICOPTER just went where no other aircraft has gone before.
The 19-inch-tall helicopter flew from the surface of Mars, marking humanity’s first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Those 39.1 seconds of flight set the stage for a new way to explore Mars — and worlds beyond.
Ingenuity is set to take on at least four more test flights on the Red Planet over the next month as engineers start to think of developing future aircraft beyond Earth. Here’s what you need to know about the Mars helicopter’s future plans.
The first flight took place at around 3:30 a.m. ET. Ingenuity lifted off about 10 feet from the Martian ground, hovering for about 30 seconds. The helicopter then descended back down and landed once more on the planet’s rocky surface, with the entire flight lasting for a little under 40 seconds.
ARE THERE MORE FLIGHTS FOR THE MARS HELICOPTER INGENUITY?
April 19 was the first of a series of test flights planned for Ingenuity.
Over the course of 30 Martian sols, a team of NASA engineers will test out Ingenuity's ability to fly. (A sol is the equivalent of a day on Mars, lasting about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth.)
The Perseverance rover dropped off the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars and watched it fly for the first time.NASA
MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a briefing after the flight that the goal of the Ingenuity helicopter is to deliver data to the engineers designing future generations of helicopters destined for Mars.
“Beyond this first flight, over the next coming days, we have up to four flights planned — and increasingly difficult flights, challenging flights — and we are going to continually push all the way to the limit of this rotorcraft,” Aung says.
The helicopter could fly for up to 90 seconds at a height of 10 to 15 feet, traversing distances of almost 980 feet horizontally in that time.
Ingenuity isn’t built to sustain the harsh Martian environment for long, so after the 30 day period, Perseverance will leave its companion behind to die.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR INGENUITY?
Although brief, those flights are meant to help space engineers understand whether or not it is possible to explore Mars from an aerial perspective.
NASA has landed five rovers on the surface of Mars, the latest one about the size of an SUV that roams around the surface of Mars on its four wheels. But being able to send a helicopter to Mars would give scientists a new perspective on the Red Planet. Subsequent helicopters will carry a suite of instruments, whereas Ingenuity has just a camera aboard.
And even beyond Mars, engineers are eyeing a few worlds in our Solar System with a substantial atmosphere that could support aerial flight. There’s already a proposed mission to Saturn’s moon Titan, and NASA has performed some modeling of if helicopter flight might work on Venus, though its intense heat could kibosh near-term plans.
Titan has a thick atmosphere, in addition to showing signs of potential habitability which makes it an ideal destination for future exploration.
“This is exactly the way we build the future,” Michael Watkins, JPL director, says at the press conference. “I think you'll hear a lot more about the scientific promise of the rotorcraft on Mars as part of other planets, and as part of the Science Mission Directorate portfolio.”
LIFT OFF
NASA: MARS HELICOPTER BRINGS US INTO “THE THIRD DIMENSION”
The little helicopter proved it could make history by flying on another planet.
PASSANT RABIE
4.19.2021
ON MONDAY MORNING, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter lifted its scrawny legs 10 feet off the Martian ground. The four-pound helicopter wasn’t in the air for long, but in less than a minute, it made history.
Those mere 39 seconds marked the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet in all of space exploration history, a major feat that will set the stage for a new way for humanity to explore other worlds. The Wright Brothers flyer — of which there’s a piece aboard Ingenuity — lasted only 12 seconds and still changed the world forever.
Ingenuity took off at around 3:30 a.m. ET. Ground control received word of the flight’s success shortly after, unveiling first images at 6:46 a.m. ET from flight headquarters at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.
Ingenuity downlinked its data through its Martian companion, the Perseverance rover, which communicates to mission control via the Deep Space Network. In a press conference on Monday, JPL director Michael Watkins discussed how it opens up a new era of exploration.
“What the Ingenuity team has done is given us the third dimension,” Watkins says. “They freed us from the surface now forever [in terms of] planetary exploration.”
ON MONDAY MORNING, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter lifted its scrawny legs 10 feet off the Martian ground. The four-pound helicopter wasn’t in the air for long, but in less than a minute, it made history.
Those mere 39 seconds marked the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet in all of space exploration history, a major feat that will set the stage for a new way for humanity to explore other worlds. The Wright Brothers flyer — of which there’s a piece aboard Ingenuity — lasted only 12 seconds and still changed the world forever.
Ingenuity took off at around 3:30 a.m. ET. Ground control received word of the flight’s success shortly after, unveiling first images at 6:46 a.m. ET from flight headquarters at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.
Ingenuity downlinked its data through its Martian companion, the Perseverance rover, which communicates to mission control via the Deep Space Network. In a press conference on Monday, JPL director Michael Watkins discussed how it opens up a new era of exploration.
“What the Ingenuity team has done is given us the third dimension,” Watkins says. “They freed us from the surface now forever [in terms of] planetary exploration.”
The Perseverance rover captured this footage of Ingenuity taking its first flight on Mars .NASA
Ingenuity’s takeoff was not guaranteed. The team behind the helicopter designed the aircraft specifically to fly on Mars and tested it in a simulator before sending it off, but there was no way to know that it would actually work until it flew from the Red Planet.
Paul Byrne, associate professor of planetary science at North Carolina State University, who is not involved in Perseverance, explains that a lot of things had to go right for Ingenuity to take off from Mars.
“What we saw this morning was no less than an incredible feat of human, well, ingenuity!” Byrne tells Inverse. “The sheer number of technical things that had to go right for that first flight — safe launch, safe delivery to the Martian surface, safe deployment from Perseverance, the ability of the helicopter to survive the cold Martian nights, the fact that there's no ground-in-the-loop and everything has to be automated and commanded ahead of time — is remarkable.”
Ingenuity flew to a maximum altitude of 10 feet and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds, according to NASA. The helicopter then touched back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight.
The flight was autonomous, preprogrammed by the team at JPL since they cannot fly the helicopter from Earth in real-time considering that the data has to travel millions of miles between Earth and Mars.
On Mars, Ingenuity was piloted by its onboard guidance and navigation system. According to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, it was an intricate technical feat.
“We all have a hard time finding that right line between crazy and innovative and it turns out we're often wrong with that line,” Zurbuchen says during the press conference. “This was a crazy idea that was being developed and this team put that idea into reality.”
Ingenuity landed on Mars on February 18, tucked inside the Perseverance rover.
Ingenuity’s initial flight was originally slated for April 8 but suffered some delay after the helicopter shut itself down unexpectedly during a high-speed rotor spin test.
In order to set it back on track, NASA’s engineers modified and reinstalled Ingenuity’s flight software to correct what Ingenuity project manager MiMi Aung describes as “an intricate timing issue.”
The helicopter is only 19 inches tall and weighs about four pounds, with two four-foot-long carbon-fiber rotors spinning in opposite directions.
“What will we be flying on Mars in 24 years' time? I can't wait to fi
Ingenuity’s takeoff was not guaranteed. The team behind the helicopter designed the aircraft specifically to fly on Mars and tested it in a simulator before sending it off, but there was no way to know that it would actually work until it flew from the Red Planet.
Paul Byrne, associate professor of planetary science at North Carolina State University, who is not involved in Perseverance, explains that a lot of things had to go right for Ingenuity to take off from Mars.
“What we saw this morning was no less than an incredible feat of human, well, ingenuity!” Byrne tells Inverse. “The sheer number of technical things that had to go right for that first flight — safe launch, safe delivery to the Martian surface, safe deployment from Perseverance, the ability of the helicopter to survive the cold Martian nights, the fact that there's no ground-in-the-loop and everything has to be automated and commanded ahead of time — is remarkable.”
Ingenuity flew to a maximum altitude of 10 feet and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds, according to NASA. The helicopter then touched back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight.
The flight was autonomous, preprogrammed by the team at JPL since they cannot fly the helicopter from Earth in real-time considering that the data has to travel millions of miles between Earth and Mars.
On Mars, Ingenuity was piloted by its onboard guidance and navigation system. According to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, it was an intricate technical feat.
“We all have a hard time finding that right line between crazy and innovative and it turns out we're often wrong with that line,” Zurbuchen says during the press conference. “This was a crazy idea that was being developed and this team put that idea into reality.”
Ingenuity landed on Mars on February 18, tucked inside the Perseverance rover.
Ingenuity’s initial flight was originally slated for April 8 but suffered some delay after the helicopter shut itself down unexpectedly during a high-speed rotor spin test.
In order to set it back on track, NASA’s engineers modified and reinstalled Ingenuity’s flight software to correct what Ingenuity project manager MiMi Aung describes as “an intricate timing issue.”
The helicopter is only 19 inches tall and weighs about four pounds, with two four-foot-long carbon-fiber rotors spinning in opposite directions.
“What will we be flying on Mars in 24 years' time? I can't wait to fi
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