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Mars NASA

Mars Helicopter 'Ingenuity' Completes 50th Flight After Two Years on Mars (cnn.com) 20

Posted by EditorDavid from the flying-so-high dept.
"Two years have passed since the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, carrying with it the Ingenuity helicopter," notes Slashdot reader quonset. "Created from off-the-shelf components, the helicopter was only designed to last about five flights. Instead, two years later, having become the first aircraft to fly and land on another planet, Ingenuity successfully completed its 50th flight."

CNN reports that the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) helicopter has now "surpassed all expectations," transitioning into "an aerial scout for the Perseverance rover as it explores an ancient lake and river delta on Mars." Each morning, the Helicopter Base Station on the Perseverance rover searches for Ingenuity's signal around the time the chopper is expected to "wake up," waiting for a sign that its aerial scout is still functioning. But Ingenuity's solar panels, batteries and rotor system are healthy. The chopper is "still doing fantastic," said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity team lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We're looking forward to just keep pushing that envelope."

Since the helicopter left the flat floor of Jezero Crater and headed to the river delta in January, its flights have only grown more challenging. Ingenuity has flown over uncharted and rugged terrain with landing spots surrounded by potential hazards. "We are not in Martian Kansas anymore," said Josh Anderson, Ingenuity operations lead at JPL, in a statement. "We're flying over the dried-up remnants of an ancient river that is filled with sand dunes, boulders, and rocks, and surrounded by hills that could have us for lunch. And while we recently upgraded the navigation software onboard to help determine safe airfields, every flight is still a white-knuckler...."

Ingenuity's team is already planning its next set of flights because the chopper has to remain at the right distance to stay in touch with the fast-moving rover, which can drive for hundreds of meters in a single day... The Perseverance rover is moving on from an area that could contain hydrated silica, which might have information about a warmer, wetter Martian past and any potential signs of life from billions of years ago. Up next is Mount Julian, a site that will provide the rover with a panoramic view into Belva Crater.

Ingenuity's journey has demonstrated how useful aircraft can be on space missions, scouting places that rovers can't go or helping plot a safe path to the next destination.
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Mars Helicopter 'Ingenuity' Completes 50th Flight After Two Years on Mars More

Mars Helicopter 'Ingenuity' Completes 50th Flight After Two Years on Mars

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  • Martian leaf blower? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Can the flyer be used to blow dust off the solar panels of the crawler?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Can the flyer be used to blow dust off the solar panels of the crawler?

      Ingenuity (the helicopter) has solar panels, but Perseverance (the rover) is powered by 4.8 kg of Plutonium-238 oxide.

    • Re:Martian leaf blower? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sudonim2 ( 2073156 ) on Saturday April 15, 2023 @05:40PM (#63452498)

      It's not really dust. It's something called "fines". Calling fines dust is like calling dust gravel. We basically never get particle that small on Earth unless they're artificially generated in a vacuum chamber. The minerals that make up fines are mostly water soluble. With their incredibly high surface to volume ratios, they would simply dissolve in liquid water on human timescales. It's only on a planet like Mars with no real atmosphere and no liquid water for billions of years that these particles can even form.

      Being so small, they are actually dominated more by electrostatic forces than by something like gravity. They're literally sticky like magnets. As such, you need to discharge the electrostatic charge they carry as you clean them or they'll simply never come off. The quick and easy way to do that is to wash it with soapy water. But that's in short supply on Mars. Every other way is less effective and more complex.

      • So, Mars is covered in Tang.

      • AIUI it's comparable to the solids in cigarette smoke.

        • Similar size but fines are mineral and not carbon based. That makes a huge difference. It also makes a difference for health reasons. If we ever send humans to Mars, there's a good chance they'll all get silicosis of the lungs and eyes. They also might have an effect on human lungs much like asbestos. You basically can't filter fines out as they can work their way through many types of seals. They can enter any seal on a bearing you make, contaminate any lubricating fluid or dry lube, and are horribly abras

  • Beer Delivery System (Score:3)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Saturday April 15, 2023 @03:40PM (#63452294)

    Tested and ready to serve the future workers building the base.

  • Aircraft Maintenance Checks: "The C check is performed approximately every 20-24 months,"

    • It would be an interesting experiment to operate a 737 on nothing but refueling and see how long it holds out.

  • That would be cool

  • It annoys me they went cheap on the camera. Its camera is terrible.

  • CAS (Score:2)

    by PPH ( 736903 )

    Close Air Support.

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