WASHINGTON, April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Monday, NASA's
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to
make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity
team at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight
succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA's
Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m.
EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).
"Ingenuity is the latest in a long and storied tradition of NASA
projects achieving a space exploration goal once thought
impossible," said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. "The X-15 was a pathfinder
for the space shuttle. Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner rover did
the same for three generations of Mars rovers. We don't know
exactly where Ingenuity will lead us, but today's results indicate
the sky – at least on Mars – may not be the limit."
The solar-powered helicopter first became airborne at
3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT) – 12:33 Local Mean Solar Time
(Mars time) – a time the Ingenuity team determined would have
optimal energy and flight conditions. Altimeter data indicate
Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3
meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds. It then
descended, touching back down on the surface of Mars after logging
a total of 39.1 seconds of flight. Additional details on the test
are expected in upcoming downlinks.
Ingenuity's initial flight demonstration was autonomous –
piloted by onboard guidance, navigation, and control systems
running algorithms developed by the team at JPL. Because data must
be sent to and returned from the Red Planet over hundreds of
millions of miles using orbiting satellites and NASA's Deep Space
Network, Ingenuity cannot be flown with a joystick, and its flight
was not observable from Earth in real time.
NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen
announced the name for the Martian airfield on which the flight
took place.
"Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making
the first flight on our planet, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has
succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world,"
Zurbuchen said. "While these two iconic moments in aviation history
may be separated by time and 173 million miles of space, they now
will forever be linked. As an homage to the two innovative bicycle
makers from Dayton, this first of many airfields on other worlds
will now be known as Wright Brothers Field, in recognition
of the ingenuity and innovation that continue to propel
exploration."
Ingenuity's chief pilot, Håvard Grip, announced that the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – the United
Nations' civil aviation agency – presented NASA and the Federal
Aviation Administration with official ICAO designator IGY,
call-sign INGENUITY.
These details will be included officially in the next edition of
ICAO's publication Designators for Aircraft Operating Agencies,
Aeronautical Authorities and Services. The location of the flight
has also been given the ceremonial location designation JZRO for
Jezero Crater.
As one of NASA's technology demonstration projects, the
19.3-inch-tall (49-centimeter-tall) Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
contains no science instruments inside its tissue-box-size
fuselage. Instead, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) rotorcraft is intended to
demonstrate whether future exploration of the Red Planet could
include an aerial perspective.
This first flight was full of unknowns. The Red Planet has
a significantly lower gravity – one-third that of Earth's – and an
extremely thin atmosphere with only 1% the pressure at the
surface compared to our planet. This means there are relatively few
air molecules with which Ingenuity's two 4-foot-wide
(1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight. The
helicopter contains unique components, as well as
off-the-shelf-commercial parts – many from the smartphone industry
– that were tested in deep space for the first time with this
mission.
"The Mars Helicopter project has gone from 'blue sky'
feasibility study to workable engineering concept to achieving the
first flight on another world in a little over six years," said
Michael Watkins, director of JPL.
"That this project has achieved such a historic first is testimony
to the innovation and doggedness of our team here at JPL, as well
as at NASA's Langley and Ames Research Centers, and our industry
partners. It's a shining example of the kind of technology push
that thrives at JPL and fits well with NASA's exploration
goals."
Parked about 211 feet (64.3 meters) away at Van Zyl
Overlook during Ingenuity's historic first flight, the
Perseverance rover not only acted as a communications relay between
the helicopter and Earth, but also chronicled the flight operations
with its cameras. The pictures from the rover's Mastcam-Z and
Navcam imagers will provide additional data on the helicopter's
flight.
"We have been thinking for so long about having our Wright
brothers moment on Mars, and here it is," said MiMi Aung, project manager of the Ingenuity Mars
Helicopter at JPL. "We will take a moment to celebrate our success
and then take a cue from Orville and Wilbur regarding what to do
next. History shows they got back to work – to learn as much as
they could about their new aircraft – and so will we."
Perseverance touched down with Ingenuity attached to its belly
on Feb. 18. Deployed to the surface
of Jezero Crater on April 3,
Ingenuity is currently on the 16th sol, or Martian day, of its
30-sol (31-Earth day) flight test
window. Over the next three sols, the
helicopter team will receive and analyze all data and imagery from
the test and formulate a plan for the second experimental test
flight, scheduled for no earlier than April
22. If the helicopter survives the second flight test, the
Ingenuity team will consider how best to expand the flight
profile.
More About Ingenuity
JPL, which built Ingenuity, also manages the technology
demonstration project for NASA. It is supported by NASA's Science,
Aeronautics, and Space Technology mission directorates. The
agency's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and Langley
Research Center in Hampton,
Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis
and technical assistance during Ingenuity's development.
Dave Lavery is the program
executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, MiMi Aung is the project manager, and
Bob Balaram is chief engineer.
For more information about Ingenuity:
https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit
and
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter
More About Perseverance
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).
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.
JPL built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. JPL
is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California.
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SOURCE NASA