Jezero Crater, a white lake on Mars and the current site of the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter, can drop to minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit. It is low enough to cause significant damage to the helicopter’s electrical components and battery.
The 4-kilogram helicopter finally separated from the belly of the Perseverance rover on April 3, where it was hidden before the rover was launched from Earth in July.
The ingenuity went through a series of movements to unfold from under the rover, which looked like the metamorphosis of a butterfly, before dropping the last 4 centimeters on the Martian surface.
“This is the first time that ingenuity is alone on the surface of Mars,” MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. “But now we have confirmation that we have the right insulation, the right heaters and enough battery power to survive the cold night, which is a big win for the team. We are delighted to continue to prepare the ingenuity for its first flight test. “
Ingeniousness, the first rotation sent to Mars, presented a challenge to the engineers who designed it for several reasons. It had to be small enough to hide under the rover without endangering the mission of Perseverance, which is the first to look for evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars.
Also, the ingenuity had to be light to be able to fly through the Martian atmosphere, which has only 1% of the atmosphere present on Earth, while having enough power to warm up and survive the cold Martian nights. The thin nature of the atmosphere on Mars makes it more difficult to generate ascent and rise.
Shortly after Perseverance put the ingenuity in the center of its aerodrome, the rover returned from the helicopter. This allowed the helicopter’s solar network to collect critical sunlight.
Perseverance sent back images of the helicopter’s four legs on the surface on April 4. The helicopter blades, currently lined up on top of each other, will be launched on April 7, and the mission team on Earth will send commands to the helicopter to “shake” the blades.
The helicopter also has to go through a few checks on its computers, which will help Ingenuity fly autonomously through the Martian atmosphere.
Now, when Ingeniousness does not borrow energy and heat from the rover, the helicopter will send back information about the performance of its power and thermal control systems in the next two days. This will allow the helicopter team to configure the necessary settings to ensure that the ingenuity survives the next 30 days of its mission.
The ingenuity is a technological demonstration, which means that its mission is short compared to the rover’s two-year plan to explore the Jezero crater. Now that the helicopter is on the Martian surface, it has 31 days on Earth, or 30 Martian messengers, to perform up to five test flights.
During the first flight, the helicopter will try to rise to about 3 meters in the air from the middle of its flat 10 by 10 meter aerodrome, make a turn and reach back down. The process should take about 30 seconds. Future flights will test the helicopter’s ability to fly higher and higher.
Meanwhile, the Perseverance rover will sit on a nearby view and observe the flight, capturing images, video and audio. They will arrive on Earth in the days after the first flight.
Once the journey of ingenuity is over, the rover will focus on its scientific mission and begin studying the rocks and collecting evidence that will be returned to Earth by future missions.
“Our 30-ground test program is loaded with interesting milestones,” Teddy Tzanetos, deputy chief of operations for JPL’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter, said in a statement. “No matter what our future holds, we will get all the flight data we can in that time.”