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Ingenuity's first take off and landing on Mars, 19 April
2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS) |
The little helicopter that could has once again proven its worth.
On Saturday, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, a
tissue-box-sized rotorcraft that landed with the Perseverance rover in
February, flew for the tenth time over the red planet.
Each flight of Ingenuity has been more audacious than the
one before it. So Saturday's flight was probably the helicopter's riskiest yet:
If everything went according to plan, Ingenuity would climb 40 feet (12 metres)
in the air, then fly south-by-southwest toward a group of rock formations known
as "Raised Ridges," before looping back around to a landing zone
about 310 feet (94 metres) west of its takeoff point.
Ingenuity had previously flown about one mile before
Saturday, so its tenth flight aided it in reaching that goal.
The flight was supposed to last about 2 minutes and 45
seconds. Ingenuity is expected to have visited ten different waypoints
throughout that period, taking images along the way.
Flight 10 is a notable achievement, since Ingenuity has now
flown twice as many times as NASA engineers had anticipated. As it strained the
limits of its speed and endurance, NASA expected Ingenuity to crash on its
fourth or fifth trip.
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The ground track and waypoints for Ingenuity's 10th flight,
Jezero Crater, Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona) |
Ingenuity, on the other hand, has continued to outperform
expectations. Even when a problem caused the chopper to wobble mid-flight
during its sixth flight in May, it safely landed.
The drone began as a technical demonstration, but after its
fourth flight in late May, NASA granted Ingenuity a secondary purpose.
Ingenuity has been researching new Martian terrain and testing activities that
NASA may want to do with future space helicopters since then. Ingenuity has
recently flown through Mars' Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer)
impact basin that was filled with water some 3.5 billion years ago, landing in
fresh locations each time.
Ingenuity faces a hurdle in the uneven landscape, as rocky
or rippling land might distort its field of view, forcing it to wander in the
wrong direction. NASA scientists described Ingenuity's ninth mission earlier
this month as a "nail-biter" because the helicopter had to navigate
extremely dangerous terrain.
On Mars, ingenuity is still proving helpful, but its future
is questionable.
Ingenuity's first four flights resulted in the rotorcraft
landing in the same location from which it took off. It landed on a new
airfield on its fifth flight, which it had previously flown over, photographed,
and mapped. However, Ingenuity's most recent trips have taken her south, into
new terrain.
Ingenuity captured a photo of its shadow during its 7th
flight on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) |
NASA engineers have not stated when Ingenuity's mission will
finish, but the helicopter could continue to fly as long as it remains alive
and does not interfere with the Perseverance rover's science activities.
Perseverance is scouring Jezero Crater for possible ancient
extraterrestrial microbial remains. Ingenuity's new operations can help with
that mission: the helicopter can explore and map the landscape, discover good
study locations from the air, and fly to places where the rover can't go.
"Raised Ridges" are of great interest to NASA
scientists because water may have flowed there in the past. Ingenuity also
captured colour photographs of interesting rock outcrops for Perseverance to
investigate later during its ninth flight.
In a recent blog post, NASA scientists noted, "We're
hopeful the colour photographs will provide the closest look yet at 'Pilot
Pinnacle,' a region exhibiting outcrops that some team members believe may
record some of the deepest water habitats in historic Lake Jezero."
Perseverance's tight timetable may prevent it from visiting
the rocks, thus "Ingenuity may give the only opportunity to explore these
deposits in any depth," according to the experts.
Business Insider originally published this article.
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