NASA’s Perseverance explorer will land on the red planet on February 18, but the rover will not be the only new robot explorer. The wheeled robot carries the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity on its belly, and NASA has put together a handy list of things to know about this mission. Although several of the six facts seem to be driving home, that NASA does not really know if Ingenuity is going to work. In fact, it can still be seen as a success at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, even if it crashes on its first flight.
Here are the six things NASA thinks you need to know about Ingenuity before it hits.
- Ingenuity is an experimental flight test.
- Mars will not make it easy for Ingenuity to embark on the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
- Ingenuity relies on the Mars 2020 transit mission for safe passage to Mars and for operations on the surface of the Red Planet.
- Ingenuity is smart for a small robot.
- The Ingenuity team counts success step by step.
- If ingenuity succeeds, future Mars exploration could include an ambitious air dimension.
About half of this list seems to be about controlling expectations. NASA has done all the tests on Earth, including simulating the pressure of Mars and gravity to ensure that the small helicopter can generate adequate lift. Mars has enough atmosphere where probe needs heat shielding for their descent, but there is not enough that parachutes can sufficiently slow down the size of perseverance for a soft landing. Ingenuity is designed to be light with large rotor blades to compensate. However, JPL engineers cannot say with certainty that it will work.
NASA also emphasizes that ingenuity is experimental. It mostly uses off-the-shelf hardware, and it relies on the Perseverance rover for communication and exploration. NASA is concentrating on the small victories on the way for Ingenuity, from the journey to survive, to successfully deploy on the surface, to finally into the air.
Since Mars is so far away, there is no way to control its flight in real time. However, NASA emphasizes that Ingenuity has enough brains on board to make its own decisions. If it all comes together, and ingenuity can give us an aerial view of Mars, it could change how future missions are designed. Perseverance can complete its mission, even if Ingenuity finds flames during its first flight, but future Mars missions may depend on flying drones for important functions.
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