The Mars 2020 perseverance mission, presented Thursday, marks the fifth time NASA has sent a spacecraft to the red planet.
This time, the experimental generation adapts to the mission’s flagship attraction: an $80 million mini-helicopter that will be NASA’s first attempt to fly a helicopter to the planet.
The little helicopter, called Ingenuity, looks like a drone. According to NASA scientists, this represents the high risk and great reward of the mission.
“We have never flown a rotor helicopter, a helicopter, outdoors in our own atmosphere. It’s not easy,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Helicopter Assignment Manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The thin Martian environment, only 1% of The Earth’s volume, means the ship will have to be super smooth with large, fast-rotating rotors.
The helicopter weighed only 4 pounds and less than two feet tall. Its double carbon fiber rotors rotate about 8 times faster than a helicopter on Earth.
The helicopter can fly up to 90 seconds in a row and is powered through solar panels that recharge lithium-ion batteries. During flights to Earth in a special chamber that simulated the Martian atmosphere, Ingenuity blew a loud whistle as it took off from the ground.
But before Ingenuity can fly, he still has a lot to do.
The helicopter sits under the abdomen of Perseverance, a car-sized spacecraft that was presented early Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.
The 314 million-kilometer adventure to the red planet takes seven months. Once there, the ship will have what is known in NASA’s engineering circles: “seven minutes of terror”: entry, descent and landing on Mars. A parachute-powered design and rocket are helping to slow down the ship at speeds of 12,000 mph, all without human interaction during the last minutes of tension.
“We literally can’t do anything,” said Matt Wallace, deputy director of assignments for Mars 2020 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Our hearts will be beating hard when we reach this component of the mission.”
Once Perseverance lands north of the Martian equator on February 18, the 2260-pound robot will spend time in a clay-rich crater that would once have contained water known as the Jezero crater. It is a complicated environment full of radiation and temperatures falling at minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit at night.
Approximately two months after landing, the first helicopter flight is scheduled.
NASA will send a series of commands to the Perseverance rover, which will be broadcast through NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Deep Space Network of radio antennas.
A rover shield, which protects the helicopter, falls to the ground. Then a locking mechanism now the in-position helicopter is released. The wit rotates horizontally as its 4 touchdown legs unfold.
The Perseverance rover then travels some distance, never locating Ingenuity again. The rover communicates with the helicopter via antennas with the most sensitive wit. The on-board cameras of both cars allow them to take pictures and record videos.
The first flight will be brief: a short climb of up to 10 feet for about 30 seconds. The following flights for the next 30 days will be longer distances.
Ingenuity is a wonderful promise to science, discovery and long-term exploration, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a press convention this week.
Similar helicopters can be used as “explorers” in other area missions. Helicopters can simply be regions that are too steep for rovers.
“Maybe it’s the way we do planetary science in those other worlds,” he said.
Launch: The spacecraft was introduced Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.
More perseverance coverage: Cameras, a Perseverance rover and the search for life in space: what you want to know about the Mars 2020 mission
Landing: February 18, 2021.
Cost: more than $2.5 billion.
Meaning: This is NASA’s ninth mars landing project and the fifth involving a spacecraft traveling to Mars.
Objective: The Perseverance rover is the largest, heaviest and most complicated rover NASA has ever sent to the red planet. Clinical tools on board the rover will make the team look for symptoms of habitable situations and beyond microbial life.
More cameras than previous projects: Perseverance will be loaded with 23 cameras, the maximum for a project to Mars. Scientists at Arizona State University will use Mastcam-Z, a dual-camera formula with zoom functions and the ability to create 3-d photos and panoramas. There are also cameras aboard the Ingenuity helicopter.
First helicopter: NASA will attempt the first planet-driven flight with the Ingenuity helicopter, a small spacecraft that looks like a drone.
Contact the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.
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