Mars helicopter performs well before 1st flight

NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity, the first powered aircraft on another planet, is free of the Perseverance rover that carried it and appears to be functioning well ahead of its first flight on Sunday, the space agency said.

NASA plans to broadcast the results of that first flight at 3:30 a.m. EDT Monday after the helicopter transmits data and images to Perseverance, which will send them back to Earth.

The helicopter detached from the rover’s underbelly Saturday and survived subzero temperatures with its own heaters, which NASA said Tuesday was “a major milestone.”

The 4-pound rover uses solar panels to charge its batteries and keep delicate electronics safe from extreme cold that can reach 130 degrees F below zero.

“So far, everything has gone very well, so I’m 90 percent stress-free about Ingenuity now,” said Jeremy Morrey, a principal engineer at Lockheed Martin, which built the helicopter’s protective shield and robotic release mechanism.

Morrey said he and many others on NASA’s team watched fervidly as high-resolution images show the aircraft unfolding as designed.

“The images were kind of spectacular really,” Morrey said. “I mean, you can see the texture and the carbon fiber makeup of the rotors and the little springs as they were released.”

Ingenuity was covered in red Martian dust, even though it had been under a cover during the rover’s landing on Feb. 18 because thrusters on the rover’s landing jet pack had kicked up clouds of debris.

“The cover was designed to protect Ingenuity from rocks and pebbles, not from dust, so there was a gap where dust got in,” Morrey said. “Once the helicopter rotors start turning, I expect it will blow away all that dust. They may also stir up a lot more of it though. We’ll see.”

Lockheed is working on landing apparatus for NASA’s next interplanetary helicopter, the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2027. Morrey said NASA and Lockheed are watching Ingenuity closely for lessons that can be applied to future missions.

The helicopter also has a camera, and sent its first photo back to NASA, showing dusty red pebbles below it. The aircraft is carrying no science equipment as NASA considers it purely a demonstration of powered flight on another planet.

UPI-Yonhap NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, Tuesday, using the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) camera located at the end of the rover’s long robotic arm. Perseverance’s selfie with Ingenuity is constructed of 62 individual images, taken in sequence while the rover was looking at the helicopter, then again while looking at the WATSON camera, stitched together once they are sent back to Earth. The Curiosity rover takes similar selfies using a camera on its robotic arm.