Reader Response Draft 2.5

 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. According to Gohd (2021), 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.

Although the helicopter currently is not a transportation device, Ingenuity’s rotor blades proved that flight on another planet is possible while performing it autonomously using its enhanced 3D imaging system.

Helicopter Ingenuity was able to succeed in its mission to prove that powered flight is possible on the Mars with the use of powerful rotor blades. 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. 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 the article by Gail (2021) ‘So a helicopter flew on Mars for the first time. A space physicist explains why that’s such a big deal’, it was mentioned that the rotor must spin at a speed that creates a lift force. To achieve this, the carbon fibre rotors spin at a high speed of 2,400 revolutions per minute. Ingenuity’s blades are 1.2m from tip to tip while its body is merely the size of a tissue box as mentioned by Gail (2021). Therefore, the rotor blades played a key role so that Ingenuity can demonstrate flight on another planet for the first time.

 

Moreover, using its 3D imaging system, 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

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.

Gail Iles Senior Lecturer in Physics. (2021, June 4). So a helicopter flew on Mars for the first time. A space physicist explains why that's such a big deal. The Conversation. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/so-a-helicopter-flew-on-mars-for-the-first-time-a-space-physicist-explains-why-thats-such-a-big-deal-159334.

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.

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

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.