Ingenuity helicopter achieves 50 flights on Mars

14 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completed its 50th flight on Mars on April 13, traveling 322.2 meters in 145.7 seconds. at a record flight altitude of 18 meters.

With the 50th flight in the mission logbook, which brought Ingenuity to land near the 800 meter wide Belva craterthe control team on Earth plans to perform another repositioning flight before exploring the “Fall River Pass” region of Jezero crater.

Ingenuity landed on the Red Planet in February 2021 attached to the belly of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and will soon mark the two-year anniversary of its first flight, which took place on April 19, 2021. Designed as a technology demonstration that would fly without more than five times, the helicopter was intended to demonstrate that powered and controlled flight on another planet was possible. But Ingenuity exceeded expectations and became a demo of operationsreports NASA.

Every time Ingenuity goes on the air, it covers new ground and offers a perspective that no previous planetary mission could achieve. The helicopter images have not only shown how the planes could serve as advanced explorers for future planetary expeditions, they have even been useful to the Perseverance team.

By testing the limits of the helicopter, engineers gather flight data that can be used by engineers working on designs for potential future helicopters for Mars. That includes the people who design the Sample Recovery Helicopters proposed by the Mars Sample Return campaign.

Since leaving the relatively flat confines of the Jezero crater floor on January 19, Ingenuity has flown 11 times, setting new speed and altitude records — of 6.5 meters per second and 18 meters — along the way.

Although the bitter cold of winter and regional dust events (which can block the sun’s rays from reaching the helicopter’s solar panel) have subsided, Ingenuity continues to hibernate at night. As a result, the rover’s helicopter base station needs to search for the helicopter’s signal every morning at the scheduled time for Ingenuity to wake up. And when the helicopter flies, now he must navigate rough and relatively unfamiliar terrain, landing in places that may be surrounded by dangers.

Beyond tackling more challenging terrain, Ingenuity will also fly more frequently in the coming days because the helicopter must remain within electronic earshot of the rover. With its AutoNav capability, Perseverance can travel hundreds of meters each day.

“Ingenuity relies on Perseverance to act as a communications relay between it and mission controllers here at JPL,” he said. it’s a statement Josh Anderson, chief operating officer. “If the rover goes too far or disappears behind a hill, we could lose communications. The rover team has a job to do and a schedule to keep. So it’s imperative that Ingenuity stays up to date and always leads the way.” that it’s possible.”

Perseverance recently completed exploration of “Foel Drygarn”, a science target that may contain hydrated silica (which is of great astrobiological interest). He is currently heading to “Mount Julian”, which will provide a panoramic view of the nearby Belva crater.

Built with many off-the-shelf components such as smartphone processors and cameras, Ingenuity is now 23 ground months and 45 flight months past its expected lifespan. The helicopter has flown for more than 89 minutes and more than 11.6 kilometers.

“When we first flew, we thought we’d be incredibly lucky to get five flights,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity team leader at JPL. “We have exceeded our expected cumulative flight time since our technology demonstration ended by 1,250% and our expected distance flown by 2,214%.”