Now, with NASA’s Mars ingenious helicopter, which has completed its first test flight to the red planet, members of the Southern California Jet Propulsion Laboratory will prepare for the next stages of their mission.
After Monday’s historic event, the solar-powered rotating device will try up to four more flights over a period of less than 30 days.
NASA INGENUITY MARS HELICOPTER MAKES HISTORY WITH THE FIRST POWER FLIGHT AND CONTROLLED ON ANOTHER PLANET
Over the next three Martian days – also known as solos – the helicopter team will receive and analyze data and images from the first flight and develop a plan for the second experimental test, which is scheduled for April 22 at the earliest.
“If the helicopter survives the second flight test, the ingenuity team will consider how best to expand the flight profile,” NASA said in a statement Monday.
The ingenuity will make up to five flights, assuming that NASA continues to successfully remove potential obstacles, each with a chance to record additional data for future use.
The Associated Press reported Monday that the ambitious move could lead to a fleet of Martian drones and could help helicopter navigation on Earth.
Perseverance Navcam View the first flight of ingenuity
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After finishing the ingenuity, the Perseverance rover will resume its focus on surface operations.
Before the flight of Ingeniousness, Perseverance led to his Overlook site, where documented feat using Mastcam-Z and Navcam images.
NASA’s NASA’s perseverance account also wrote that it imagined some local stones at the observation point before the Ingenuity takeoff.
Perseverance will still be used to communicate with the now completely autonomous ingenuity throughout the process.
As NASA notes in its press releases, a major goal for the “Percy” mission to Mars is research in astrobiology that includes the search for ancient microbial life.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 3.9 meters from the rover. This image was taken by the WASTON camera on the rover’s robotic arm on April 6, 2021, the 46th Martian day, or ground, of the mission. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
(NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS)
As the rover characterizes Martian geology, it will collect and hide rocks and sediments – drilling basic samples into rock targets of interest to scientists.
In March, NASA announced that the Perseverance SuperCam instrument had selected two rock targets, “Yeehgo” and “Máaz”, for study.
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In cooperation with NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) will send spacecraft to Mars to collect cached samples – stored in tubes and placed on a storage shelf before being placed in the same area on the surface of Mars – and will return them to Earth for analysis.
The rover can hide over 30 selected rock and “soil” samples before its task is completed.