The little helicopter aboard NASA's Perseverance rover has gotten its first look at the Red Planet.
We all know about Earth's helicopter right? So Mars Helicopter is the same thing? Technically yes. But there is a catch. Although we have full scale production of Helicopter since 1942, there has never been a helicopter flown on a world beyond Earth.
Unlike Earth Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s. This means the craft needs to work much harder than Earth-bound helicopters to lift itself off the ground.
This makes deploying the first helicopter on Mars very hard task for Ingenuity’s team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
<<>>Diagram showing the components of Ingenuity<<>>
Further more it's design also has to comply with the international 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which requires signatories to ensure their spacecraft don’t contaminate environments on other planets.
Ingenuity will attempt to carry out five flight tests within a short, 30-days time frame. If the tests work, similar helicopter technology could be used in future missions, to trek places where wheeled rovers can’t reach. It will be easier to navigate through difficult typologies like caves, tunnels, or mountaintops. Ingenuity won’t fly again after its 30-day time frame. After that, Ingenuity will lie on the Martian surface for eternity.
After Ingenuity's few flights are finished, Perseverance will begin focusing on its main tasks. It will hunting for signs of ancient Mars life and collecting samples for future return to Earth.
Ingenuity is one of two technology demonstrations aboard Perseverance. The other, an instrument called MOXIE ("Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment"), is designed to generate oxygen from the thin, carbon dioxide-dominated Martian atmosphere. Scaled-up versions of MOXIE could one day help humanity set up shop on the Red Planet, NASA officials have said.
Perseverance is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the crater Jezero on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on 30 July 2020 at 11:50 UTC. Confirmation that the rover successfully landed on Mars was received on 18 February 2021 at 20:55 UTC.
<<>>>View of Perseverance from the sky crane during landing<<>>
