NASA engineers predict that the Martian helicopter will crash after five liftoffs. It just landed on its 15th flight.

NASA employees are building Perseverance Rover: If it comes with Small helicopter To Mars?

The engineers don’t know if the helicopter can work on Mars. It is very difficult to get off in the air where the density of the Earth’s atmosphere is only 1%. This is equivalent to flying altitude three times that of Mount Everest. But NASA hopes to prove that this is possible through technical demonstrations.

NASA engineers built a small rotorcraft called Ingenuity, and then installed it into the last available space in the belly of the Perseverance. Engineers are not sure whether Ingenuity can spend its first night on the cold surface of Mars. They are also worried that it will not fly when they give the order, or that it will crash in one of the five planned flights.

But Ingenuity eliminated these fears time and time again. On Saturday, this tissue box-sized drone completed its 15th flight.

NASA is still processing data from the latest aerial adventure. But if the flight goes according to plan, it will mean that Ingenuity rises to an altitude of nearly 12 meters, and then flies over 406 meters of Martian ground in less than 129 seconds.

NASA has been waiting for its Mars helicopter to crash

On February 18th, Ingenuity and Perseverance landed on Jezero Crater, the dry bed of an ancient lake. Scientists believe that Lake Jezero may have had a Martian microbial ecosystem more than 3.5 billion years ago. If such foreign microorganisms have ever existed, they may become fossils in mineral deposits that sink to the bottom of the lake and turn into rocks.

At first, the engineers did not expect that Ingenuity could fly more than 4.5 meters above Jezero Crater. Project Manager MiMi Aung says In early April, by the time of the fifth flight, the helicopter “is unlikely to land safely because we will begin to enter unmanned areas.”

On September 5, 2021, during its 13th flight, the shadow of Ingenuity was shown in the photos of its navigation camera.

“If we do fail to land, it will be the end of the mission,” she added. “The life span will depend on how far it falls, almost.”

But Ingenuity has stayed at least 14 times (perhaps 15 times, waiting for NASA to confirm the details of the latest flight).

In the fourth flight of the helicopter on April 30, 2021, Perseverance recorded originality.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / LANL / CNES / CNRS / ISAE-SUPAERO

After the first five flights, Ingenuity performed so well that NASA gave it a 30-day extended mission. In the first award flight, Flight Six, The helicopter flew over previously uninvestigated terrain.

Since then, it has visited several uninvestigated locations, on rocky terrain and rippled sand.

During these flights, Ingenuity took close-up photos of the outcrops and rock fields that the Perseverance team was considering sending. NASA then uses these images to determine a safe, flat route that the rover can follow.Ingenuity picture It also helps scientists determine the types of rocks in the area-if Perseverance collects samples from these rocks, this information can provide clues about the past of Jezero crater.

Perseverance scientist Ken Farley said in a briefing in April: “The ability to fly the helicopter to terrain that the rover cannot traverse and bring back scientific data-this is very important for future missions that combine the rover with the reconnaissance helicopter. .”.

Ingenuity took this photo during the helicopter’s 13th flight on September 5, 2021.

When the helicopter exceeded its 30-day extension, NASA gave it another one. The agency decided to continue flying Ingenuity until the helicopter crashed or interfered with Perseverance’s operations. Neither has happened yet.

In fact, Ingenuity works perfectly in almost every flight.It went through a difficult journey in May, when Technical failure caused it to roll and pitch during flight. But the helicopter landed safely.

A series of images taken by Ingenuity’s navigation camera on May 22 shows the helicopter tilting back and forth.

In the last two flights, NASA worked harder to promote Ingenuity by increasing the rotation speed of the helicopter’s rotor.

In order to generate enough lift in the thin Martian atmosphere, Ingenuity must rotate its two pairs of blades in opposite directions at 2,400 revolutions per minute (rpm). But now Jezero Crater is in the middle of summer, and the air has become thinner. This is because the winter conditions in the Earth’s South Pole convert carbon dioxide into ice and snow, removing some gas from the atmosphere. As a result, the blade has recently been accelerated to 2,700 rpm.

Originality has now flown like that twice.

NASA is planning another four to seven flights to bring the helicopter back to the site where Perseverance first landed on Mars. In addition, the agency has not disclosed its plans.

On November 6, 2021, during the 15th flight, the shadow of Ingenuity captured by the navigation camera.

Ultimately, NASA hopes to send more ambitious helicopters to Mars — and possibly other worlds. Space drones similar to Ingenuity can one day survey difficult terrain from above, study large areas at a faster speed than a rover, and even perform reconnaissance for astronauts.

NASA is already developing one such helicopter mission: a type called dragonfly It is scheduled to be launched to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2027. It aims to investigate whether this methane-rich world can accommodate alien life.

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