Name: Ingenuity Main Job: A technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars. The helicopter will ride to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover.
Launch Window July 30 - Aug. 15, 2020 Launch Location: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida Landing: Feb. 18, 2021 Landing Site: Jezero Crater, Mars Length of Mission:One or more flights within 30 days
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Mars Helicopter Fact Sheet
Key Objectives • Prove powered flight in the thin atmosphere of Mars. The Red Planet has lower gravity (about onethird that of Earth) but its atmosphere is just 1% as thick, making it much harder to generate lift. • Demonstrate miniaturized flying technology. That requires shrinking down onboard computers, electronics and other parts so that the helicopter is light enough to take off. • Operate autonomously. The helicopter will use solar power to charge its batteries and rely on internal heaters to maintain operational temperatures during the cold Martian nights. After receiving commands from Earth relayed through the rover, each test flight is performed without real-time input from Mars Helicopter mission controllers.
Program Management The Mars 2020 Project and Mars Helicopter Technology Demonstration are managed for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of Caltech in Southern California.
At NASA Headquarters, David Lavery is the program executive for the Mars helicopter. At JPL, MiMi Aung is the Mars Helicopter project manager and J. (Bob) Balaram is chief engineer. • Weighs 4 pounds (1.8 kg) • Solar-powered and recharges on its own • Wireless communication system • Two 4-foot-long (1.2- meter-long) rotor system that spins up to 2,400 revolutions per minute • Equipped with inertial sensors, a laser altimeter and two cameras (one color and one black-and-white)
How the Helicopter is Released Ingenuity will hitch a ride on the Perseverance rover's belly, covered by a shield to protect it during the descent and landing. Once at a suitable spot on Mars, the shield covering beneath the rover will drop. Then, the team will release the helicopter in several steps to get it safely onto the surface. Tech Specs Mass: 1.8 kilograms Weight: 4 pounds on Earth; 1.5 pounds on Mars Width: Total length of rotors: ~4 feet (~1.2 meters) tip to tip Power: Solar panel charges Lithium-ion batteries, providing enough energy for one 90-second flight per Martian day (~350 Watts of average power during flight) Blade span: Just under 4 feet (1.2 meters) Flight range: Up to 980 feet (300 meters) Flight altitude: Up to 15 feet (5 meters) Flight environment:Thin atmosphere, less than 1% as dense as Earth's
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." - Leonardo Da Vinci
Title: NASA’s Perseverance Rover Hears Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight Published: 07 May 2021 Duration: 2:44 Code: https://youtu.be/y5niGi4k9vQ
On April 30, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover made history as the first spacecraft to record sounds from another spacecraft on another planet. During Ingenuity’s fourth flight, a microphone included with the SuperCam instrument aboard Perseverance captured the humming sound of the blades and the din of wind.
The audio is recorded in mono. Scientists made it easier to hear by isolating the 84 hertz helicopter blade sound, reducing the frequencies below 80 hertz and above 90 hertz, and increasing the volume of the remaining signal. Some frequencies were clipped to bring out the helicopter’s hum, which is loudest when the helicopter passes through the field of view of the camera. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021.
Perseverance touched down at Octavia E. Butler Landing with Ingenuity attached to its belly on Feb. 18, 2021. The helicopter was deployed to the surface of Jezero Crater on April 3.
