We all know about the first powered, controlled flight on Earth which took place on the 17th of December 1903. Years passed by and now here we are with the Ingenuity Helicopter attempting the first powered controlled flight and that too on another planet.
Yes, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is all set to make its first attempt at the powered, controlled flight of the aircraft no earlier than the 11th of April 2021. A live stream confirming the first flight of the Mars Helicopter is said to begin around 3:30 am EDT on the 12th of April. Live is available on NASA TV, NASA Application, JPL YouTube and Facebook channels.
The Ingenuity remains attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover, and on 21st March the rover deployed the guitar case-shaped composite debris shield that protected the Ingenuity during the landing of the rover. The rover currently is in transit to the “airfield” where the Mars Helicopter will be making the first attempt for its flight. Once deployed, the Ingenuity will have 30 Martian days or sols for its test flight campaign.
Flying in a controlled manner on Mars is far more difficult when compared to that on Earth. With gravity that is one-third of Earth, the Red Planet has an atmosphere that is just 1% as dense as that of the Earth’s atmosphere at the surface.
During the Martian daytime, the planet’s surface receives only about half the amount of solar energy when compared to the solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface during its daytime, and nighttime temperatures can drop as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius), which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components.
The Ingenuity Helicopter must be small enough so that it can fit within the accommodations provided by the Perseverance rover. Also, the Ingenuity Helicopter must be lightweight so as to fly in the Mars environment and must have enough energy to power the internal heaters so that it can survive the frigid Martian nights.
From the performance of the rotors in rarified air to its solar panels, electric heaters and other components, the system has been tested and retested in the test labs of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Bob Balram, Mars Helicopter Chief Engineer at JPL says, “Every step we have taken since this journey began six years ago has been uncharted territory in the history of aircraft, And while getting deployed to the surface will be a big challenge, surviving that first night on Mars alone, without the rover protecting it and keeping it powered, will be an even bigger one.”
Once the team is ready for the attempt, Perseverance will receive and relay the final flight instructions to Ingenuity from JPL mission controllers. There will be several factors that will determine the precise time for the flight, including modelling of local wind patterns plus measurements taken by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) aboard Perseverance.
The team will also be using all the information available to determine when and how they will be moving forward with their next test.
“Mars is hard,” said Aung. “Our plan is to work whatever the Red Planet throws at us the very same way we handled every challenge we’ve faced over the past six years – together, with tenacity and a lot of hard work, and a little Ingenuity.”
There are a lot of interesting online events waiting for you. You can attend them by clicking the link below.
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Watch-Online
Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, 3D Model
Click (or touch) and drag to interact with this 3D model of the Mars 2020 Ingenuity Helicopter.
Reference: NASA
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