Ingenuity: first flight on another planet

On Monday, April 19th, 2021, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter carried out the first controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity is a technology demonstration experiment that landed on Mars on February 18th, attached to NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The team behind the machine confirmed the success of the flight after collecting data through the rover.

The helicopter started flying at 3:34 a.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), which would be 4:34 a.m. Uruguayan Time. Ingenuity’s team determined the time of takeoff for optimal energy and flying conditions. The vehicle reached its maximum altitude of 3 meters, maintained a stable position for 30 seconds, and then descended on Mars’s surface after 39.1 seconds in the air.

Three days later, it completed its second flight on Mars, which lasted 51.9 seconds. This time, new challenges were added, including a higher altitude, longer duration, and sideways movement.

According to the chief engineer, Bob Balaram, the flight met all the expectations and stated that their previous modeling had been accurate. He also mentioned that, now that two flights have been completed, there are new things to learn and analyze during the following month.

The Ingenuity helicopter proved NASA has a new aerial capability that could be used in the future. With a budget of 85 million dollars, complex software and high-tech hardware was developed for creating Ingenuity. Additionally, NASA’s team worked exceptionally hard to solve the many engineering problems they faced along the way.

Although operating an aircraft might seem easy for NASA, it is difficult to fly on another planet. The differences in gravity and atmosphere density make flights on Mars a real challenge. However, the flights are worth the trouble since they provide an immense amount of data for modeling, simulations, and tests. NASA also gained practical experience that will be of great help in future missions.

Although short, these flights will lead to amazing future discoveries

Bibliography

Chang, K. (2021, April 22nd). NASA Mars Helicopter’s Second Flight Is a Success. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/science/nasa-mars-helicopter-ingenuity.html

Fox, A. (2021, February 16th) NASA’S Helicopter Ingenuity Will Attempt the First Flight on Mars [Photogtaph]. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/nasas-helicopter-ingenuity-will-attempt-first-flight-mars-180976958/

NASA. (2021, April 19th). NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight. NASA's Mars Exploration Program. https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8923/nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-succeeds-in-historic-first-flight/

NASA. (2021, April 22nd). NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Logs Second Successful Flight. NASA.gov. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-logs-second-successful-flight