Ingenuity (helicopter)

Ingenuity is a small helicopter developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to explore the planet Mars. In April 2021, Ingenuity became the first human-made aircraft to make a controlled flight on another world. The 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) craft was stowed away in the belly of the Perseverance Mars Rover, which landed on the Red Planet in February 2021. The craft was designed to be both a scout for Perseverance’s mission to search for signs of life and a flight test for future powered aircraft on Mars. Ingenuity completed its maiden flight on April 19 and made progressively longer flights in the months that followed. On its sixth flight, Ingenuity encountered an in-flight glitch that caused it to begin pitching back and forth; however, the craft survived the problem and gave NASA engineers valuable data to work on a solution for the issue.

Background

The first successful unmanned mission to Mars was NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft that flew by the Red Planet on July 14, 1965. The first two spacecraft to successfully land on the Martian surface were NASA’s Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers, which touched down in the summer of 1976. The next successful Mars landing did not occur until July 1997 when Mars Pathfinder reached the surface using an innovative airbag landing system. Pathfinder carried with it the Sojourner rover, the first wheeled vehicle to ever be deployed on another planet. Sojourner was built for a seven-day mission but ended up lasting for eighty-three days.

In January 2004, NASA landed twin rovers on Mars’ surface. Spirit and Opportunity were both designed to conduct geology experiments and helped prove that Mars was once home to liquid water—a sign that life may once have existed on the Red Planet. The rovers had a lifespan of ninety days, but Spirit lasted until 2010 and Opportunity lasted until 2018. NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed near the planet’s north polar region in 2008 to study the frozen water for signs of life. Four years later, the car-sized Curiosity rover landed on Mars to conduct biological and geological experiments in the continuing search for evidence of ancient microbes. Both Phoenix and Curiosity returned data suggesting that liquid water still flowed on the Red Planet, and in 2015, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter proved that liquid water exists on Mars.

Overview

In July 2020, NASA launched the Mars Perseverance rover, a scientific-based mission to look for signs of ancient Martian life and collect rock samples for a future return to Earth. On February 18, 2021, Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater, one of Mars’ craters and the site of an ancient river delta that once flowed into a lake. Perseverance carried seven instruments designed to photograph the planet’s surface, test rock and soil samples, and analyze the atmosphere.

Perseverance also carried the Ingenuity helicopter, which was tucked into the belly of the rover. Ingenuity is about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) tall and weighs about 4 pounds (1.8-kilograms). The craft has two rotor blades that rotate in opposite directions. Each blade is about 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and can spin at a rate of 2,400 revolutions per minute. Ingenuity is powered by a rechargeable solar battery and had planned flight limits of 15 feet (4.6 meters) above the surface with a range of up to 980 feet (300 meters). The craft is equipped with computers, two cameras, and navigation sensors that allow it to operate on a predetermined flight plan, without direct control from NASA. Its price tag of $85 million is part of Perseverance’s total cost of $2.7 billion. The name Ingenuity was suggested by Alabama high school student Vaneeza Rupani who submitted the name as part of a NASA contest.

NASA had originally planned for Ingenuity to be purely a demonstration project and make five test flights in its first month on Mars. Engineers wanted to see if it was possible for a powered aircraft to fly in the Martian atmosphere, which is about 1 percent as thick as Earth’s atmosphere. Ingenuity’s maiden flight was a simple test of its vertical ability, while the next two flights slowly extended its flight range, testing its capabilities and scouting out the terrain for future missions by Perseverance. The helicopter’s fourth flight searched for another landing site about 250 feet (76 meters) away from the rover. During this flight, Perseverance recorded the hum of the helicopter’s blades in the Martian atmosphere. Ingenuity’s fifth flight was a one-way trip to the edge of its range away from the rover.

At each step, Ingenuity surpassed NASA’s expectations and passed all its planned tests, so NASA decided to move the helicopter into its operational phase. The craft’s sixth flight was meant to push the envelope on its range and demonstrate its image-capturing technology. Ingenuity’s flight plan took it to a height of 33 feet (10 meters) and an initial distance of 492 feet (150 meters) away from its starting point. The craft performed flawlessly on this leg of its journey, but when it set off to its next destination, it began self-adjusting its velocity and tilting back and forth while in flight. Ingenuity survived the incident and landed safely. Scientists later determined that a glitch caused the imaging equipment to provide incorrect timestamps on its images, which resulted in inaccurate navigational information being fed to the computers. The glitch brought the problem to light, allowing NASA to begin working on a solution for the issue.

The Perseverance rover spent most of its first three months on Mars testing its equipment and taking pictures near its landing site before driving to its first destination. As of June 2021, Ingenuity is scheduled for one or two more flights, depending on the pace of the rover’s mission. If the helicopter continues to operate above expectations, Ingenuity may continue to accompany Perseverance as it explores the Martian surface. With its scheduled tests accomplished, Ingenuity may be sent on riskier missions to gauge its maneuvering capabilities and imaging capacity.

Bibliography

Chang, Kenneth. “NASA Mars Helicopter Makes One-Way Flight to New Mission.” New York Times, 10 May 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/science/mars-helicopter-nasa-ingenuity.html. Accessed 1 June 2021.

Cook, Jia-Rui, Grey Hautaluoma, and Alana Johnson. “6 Things to Know About NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 29 Apr. 2021, www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-things-to-know-about-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter. Accessed 1 June 2021.

“Every Mission to Mars, Ever.” Planetary Society, 2021, www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-mars-mission. Accessed 1 June 2021.

Gohd, Chelsea. “Mars Helicopter Ingenuity: First Aircraft to Fly on Red Planet.” Space.com, 22 May 2021, www.space.com/ingenuity-mars-helicopter-perseverance-rover. Accessed 1 June 2021.

Grip, Håvard. “Surviving an In-Flight Anomaly: What Happened on Ingenuity’s Sixth Flight.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 27 May 2021, mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/305/surviving-an-in-flight-anomaly-what-happened-on-ingenuitys-sixth-flight/. Accessed 1 June 2021.

Kooser, Amanda. “Wild NASA Image Shows Perseverance Rover Just Before Mars Touchdown.” CNet, 19 Feb. 2021, www.cnet.com/news/wild-nasa-image-shows-perseverance-rover-just-before-mars-touchdown/. Accessed 1 June 2021.

“Perseverance Mars Rover.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 19 Apr. 2021, www.nasa.gov/perseverance. Accessed 1 June 2021.

“Quick Facts.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2021, mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Quick-Facts. Accessed 1 June 2021.