Reader Response Draft 2

 

Helicopter Ingenuity

From the article by Gohd (2021), ‘Mars helicopter Ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on Red planet’, helicopter Ingenuity took off successfully on April 19, 2021. Tucked in NASA’s Perseverance Rover’s belly, it was NASA’s first aircraft to be launched to the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, as part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. Some of helicopter Ingenuity's features are solar panels, batteries, rotor blades, and cameras. Based on the article, the helicopter's solar panel charges Lithium-ion batteries that provide enough energy for one 90-second flight per Martian day. Gohd (2021) also mentioned Ingenuity to have two cameras on board, one with 0.3-megapixel black-and-white camera that points down to the ground, used for navigation. The other camera is a 12-megapixel high-resolution that looks out to the horizon. As mentioned in the article, the helicopter has rotor blades of just under 1.2 meters across, powered by a small solar panel mounted above its rotor blades.

Despite its small range of functions, helicopter Ingenuity proves that flight on another planet is possible, coincidentally performing this autonomously.  

Helicopter Ingenuity was able to succeed in its mission to prove that powered flight is possible on the Mars. In the article by Potter (2021) ’A Mars helicopter preps for launch: The first drone to fly on another planet will hitch a ride on NASA’s Perseverance rover’, Mars’ atmosphere is very thin compared to Earth where Mars has an atmospheric volume of less than 1% that of Earth’s. Moreover, Potter (2021) also mentioned that the temperature on Mars could decrease to -100 degree Celsius at night at the landing site. There are other challenges in flying a helicopter on Mars which included wind and dust storms and making sure that the craft has enough power from its solar array as mentioned by Gohd (2021). In another article by Amos (2021) ‘NASA successfully flies small helicopter on Mars’, it was mentioned that due to the sheer distance between Earth and Mars, manually controlling the device was out of question. Therefore, it is a big accomplishment that helicopter Ingenuity was successfully able to lift off for up to three meters above the surface for about 40 seconds on its first try.

Moreover, helicopter Ingenuity is able to autonomously navigate around Mars. In the article by Brockers (2021) ‘Autonomous Safe Landing Site Detection for a Future Mars Science Helicopter’, it was mentioned that due to the distance between Earth and Mars, manual control of the helicopter is not possible for take off and landing. Therefore, the team had to include a system that allowed Ingenuity to perform its flights and landing autonomous. With use of the cameras and sensors on its body, Ingenuity is able to detect the surface below it and map a 3D reconstruction of it that allows it to determine the suitable landing spots as mentioned by Brockers (2021). With this novel system, Ingenuity would be able to revolutionize space exploration and access regions where it is difficult to travel on the travel with use of rovers.

Nonetheless, helicopter Ingenuity is not a fully-fledged transportation device. It has very little additional technology as mentioned by Gohd (2021). Potter (2020) also mentioned that Ingenuity was only intended as a technology demonstration. However, in the article NASA (n.d) ‘Mars helicopter’, it was mentioned that NASA hopes to increase Ingenuity’s usage to use it as a transportation device where it could assist any astronauts working on that planet.

Regardless of being a relatively small and minute experiment, Ingenuity was able to break the boundary of surface travel on Mars. Thus, helicopter Ingenuity would be the first step into easier space and planet explorations and be a device that scientists hope would be a good assist to astronauts.

References

Gohd, C. (2021, May 22). Mars helicopter ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on Red Planet. Space.com. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.space.com/ingenuity-mars-helicopter-perseverance-rover.

Potter, N. (2021, July), "A Mars helicopter preps for launch: The first drone to fly on another planet will hitch a ride on NASA's Perseverance rover - [News]," in IEEE Spectrum, 57( 7) https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9126096.

Amos, J. (2021, April 19). NASA successfully flies small helicopter on Mars. BBC News. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56799755.

Brockers, R. (2021, June), “Autonomous Safe Landing Site Detection for a Future Mars Science Helicopter,” in IEEE Xplore https://ieeexplore.ieee.org.singaporetech.remotexs.co/abstract/document/9438289.

NASA. (n.d.). Mars helicopter. NASA. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Overview.