NASA - Ingenuity Mars Helicopter logo.
Dec 7, 2022
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a freakin' helicopter on Mars making history.
Image above: NASA's experimental Ingenuity helicopter poses on Mars in 2021. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU.
Here's a reminder of something amazing: there's a tiny helicopter flying around on Mars. It arrived in early 2021 and was only designed to last a short while. NASA's Ingenuity rotorcraft is not only still soaring, it just set an altitude record during its 35th flight on Saturday.
NASA JPL trumpeted the plucky helicopter's "all-time high" in a tweet on Tuesday. Ingenuity reached 46 feet (14 meters) above the dusty Martian ground.
JPL on Twitter (screen capture, video below)
Ingenuity altitude flight record of 39 feet (12 meters)
For perspective, Ingenuity just flew to about the height of the letters on the Hollywood sign, or more than twice the height of an adult male giraffe. That might not seem crazy, but please remember this is in the thin atmosphere on Mars. The helicopter handily eclipsed its previous altitude record of 39 feet (12 meters), which it achieved on several previous flights.
Flight 35 lasted 52 seconds. Ingenuity covered 49 feet (15 meters) of ground. The goal was to reposition the helicopter. Ingenuity needs to stay in touch with its companion, the Perseverance rover, which acts as a communications conduit between the rotorcraft and its team back on Earth. Some of its flights are designed to keep up with the rover's travel, some are about scouting the landscape and some are to test out hardware or software.
Image above: Ingenuity at Airfield D: This image of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument of the Perseverance rover on June 15, 2021, the 114th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The location, "Airfield D" (the fourth airfield), is just east of the "Séítah" geologic unit. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.
Ingenuity has seen some things in its short but exciting life. It's surveyed the Mars surface, flown with weird debris on its leg, and survived technical issues, dust, freezing temperatures and low power. A recent software update has prepared it to handle more challenging terrain and to keep on working as a scout for the rover.
All in all, Ingenuity has just as much perseverance as Perseverance. NASA sent it to Mars as a high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration, and it has blown past all expectations. Here's to more flights to come.
More About Ingenuity
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.
At NASA Headquarters, Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
For more information about Ingenuity: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter
More About the Mission
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Perseverance Rover & Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ and http://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Video (JPL), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/CNET/Amanda Kooser.
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