“Two years have handed because the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, carrying with it the Ingenuity helicopter,” notes Slashdot reader quonset. “Created from off-the-shelf parts, the helicopter was solely designed to final about 5 flights. As an alternative, two years later, having develop into the primary plane to fly and land on one other planet, Ingenuity efficiently accomplished its fiftieth flight.”
CNN experiences that the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) helicopter has now “surpassed all expectations,” transitioning into “an aerial scout for the Perseverance rover because it explores an historic lake and river delta on Mars.”
Every morning, the Helicopter Base Station on the Perseverance rover searches for Ingenuity’s sign across the time the chopper is predicted to “get up,” ready for an indication that its aerial scout continues to be functioning. However Ingenuity’s photo voltaic panels, batteries and rotor system are wholesome. The chopper is “nonetheless doing implausible,” mentioned Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity workforce lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We’re trying ahead to only preserve pushing that envelope.”
Because the helicopter left the flat flooring of Jezero Crater and headed to the river delta in January, its flights have solely grown more difficult. Ingenuity has flown over uncharted and rugged terrain with touchdown spots surrounded by potential hazards. “We aren’t in Martian Kansas anymore,” mentioned Josh Anderson, Ingenuity operations lead at JPL, in a press release. “We’re flying over the dried-up remnants of an historic river that’s stuffed with sand dunes, boulders, and rocks, and surrounded by hills that might have us for lunch. And whereas we lately upgraded the navigation software program onboard to assist decide protected airfields, each flight continues to be a white-knuckler….”
Ingenuity’s workforce is already planning its subsequent set of flights as a result of the chopper has to stay on the proper distance to remain in contact with the fast-moving rover, which may drive for a whole lot of meters in a single day… The Perseverance rover is shifting on from an space that might comprise hydrated silica, which could have details about a hotter, wetter Martian previous and any potential indicators of life from billions of years in the past. Up subsequent is Mount Julian, a web site that may present the rover with a panoramic view into Belva Crater.
Ingenuity’s journey has demonstrated how helpful plane could be on area missions, scouting locations that rovers cannot go or serving to plot a protected path to the subsequent vacation spot.
