NASA landed its Perseverance Mars rover on Thursday, and with it is a helicopter drone that could set a new milestone in aviation history.
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Perseverance, or Percy for short, is NASA’s largest Mars rover to date, about the size of an SUV. His mission is also the most ambitious so far, as it is expected to have the best chance of discovering signs of life. A future mission is supposed to bring monsters back to earth.
Perseverance landed safely just before 4pm ET and will spend at least one Mars year, equivalent to 687 Earth days, in the Jezero crater.
Minutes later, the Mars rover sends the first image from the planet’s surface. Steve Jurczyk, the acting NASA administrator, said the mission proves that NASA can land larger payloads on Mars.
“It’s just an incredible mission because of the science and technology and the sampling for a Mars monster mission,” he said. “It will be an amazing mission, the first journey to Mars and back, and to bring the monsters saved by Perseverance back to Earth to examine the latest equipment in our laboratories here on Earth.”
Maxar Technologies (MAXR) has built a new high-tech arm that will use the Mars rover to create rocks and soil that scientists will eventually bring back to Earth with a future recycling mission.
Northrop Grumman (NOC) created an inertia unit that provided attitude and acceleration information and was on all previous Mars rovers.
“The mission has just begun,” said Michael Watkins, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We built the mission not to land, but actually to take samples and do other technology demonstrations.”
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Mars Rover’s drone charge
While perseverance focuses on digging into the ground, a helicopter called Ingenuity has its own mission. Tomorrow, NASA will turn on the helicopter to determine its health.
If successful, it could perform the first controlled flight on another planet.
NASA’s Joint Propulsion Laboratory has partnered with AeroVironment (AVAV) to build the drone, which is 19 inches high with a rotor that extends about four feet.
NASA says the helicopter will be powered by solar power and can recharge on its own. It also has a wireless communication system and is equipped with two cameras, one in color and one in black and white.
But flying on Earth is not like flying on Mars. The air on Mars has only 1% of the density of the Earth’s air, making it more difficult for rotating blades to create elevators. So, ingenuity should be light, just four pounds, with rotor blades rotating 5-10 times faster than helicopters on earth do.
According to NASA data, Mars is also freezing icy with nights hitting minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit. This will put strain on Ingenuity’s parts.
“This is a technology demonstration and a pathfinder for future larger rotor craft, future missions that will carry much larger instruments,” said MiMi Aung, project manager at Ingenuity. “On this mission we are not doing any science. We are concentrating on engineering data, how well the vehicle is performing.”
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Speed Flight Schedule
The drone will not fly immediately after the Perseverance Mars rover lands. It must first deploy safely from the belly of the Mars rover, stay autonomously warm during Mars nights, and automatically charge itself with its solar panel. Lockheed Martin (LMT) has provided the Mars Helicopter Delivery System, which Ingenuity uses for flight, as well as Perseverance’s aeroshell, which will keep the rover cool through space and the Mars atmosphere.
The helicopter could fly a few weeks after Perseverance landed. If the Ingenuity succeeds with its first flight, it will attempt up to four other test flights within a 30-day window (31 days on Earth).
The five scheduled flights will be increasingly difficult. The main goal is to just get the legs off the ground and then come down again. Most flights will be 3-5 meters from the surface at a speed of a few meters per second.
NASA hopes that Ingenuity will help prove the concept to future Mars helicopters to be used for reconnaissance, carrying cargo and exploring areas that are too dangerous for a rover.
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Mars Rover Stocks
AeroVironment shares fell 4.7% to close at 123.48 on the stock market today. Maxar lost 6.3%, Lockheed rose 0.3% and Northrop 0.2%. Boeing (BA), whose United Launch Alliance joint venture with Lockheed Perseverance brought into space, lit up 3.3%.
While Ingenuity is testing the limits of flight and resilience to life, China’s Tianwen-1, which reached a Mars orbit last week, will hit Mars this spring.
The mission is the first from China to Mars, but little is known about the mission because the China National Space Administration has kept its goals under wraps. The rover is expected to explore Utopia Planitia, the largest impact crater on Mars.
The US and China’s rover missions come when the United Arab Emirates launched its spacecraft, Hope, into orbit Mars last week. Hope will surround the planet as it looks like the transformation of Mars from a planet with life to an arid desert land.
Follow Gillian Rich Twitter for space news and more.
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