NASA is a creative helicopter on Mars on a new expedition mission: Scouts Before Persevere
NASA is a creative helicopter on Mars
Ingenuity made the fourth of its five originally planned flights on Friday.
After NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter proves that powered and controlled flight is possible on the Red Planet, it gets new orders: an exploration before the rover to help its search for past signs of microbial life.
The next stage of Rotocraft's mission extends beyond the original month-long technology demonstration. Now, the goal is to assess the competence of the travelers in the future exploration of Mars and other worlds.
"We will be gathering information on the helicopter's operational support capacity as you focus perseverance on its science mission," NASA's Department of Planetary Sciences director Laurie Gleese told reporters on Friday.
The type of survey Ingenuity does can be useful someday for human missions, by identifying the best paths for explorers to take and reaching locations otherwise not possible.
The small, four-pound (1.8 kg) helicopter made the fourth of its five initially planned flights on Friday, "going farther and quicker than ever," NASA tweeted.
Breaking its own records! The #MarsHelicopter team celebrated their 4th flight today. Ingenuity rose 16 ft (5 m) above the surface before flying south ~436 ft (~133 m) and then back. It was in the air for 117 seconds during its 872-ft (266-m) trip. https://t.co/gCeXq5jtkL pic.twitter.com/GxdjKFMo77
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 30, 2021
The fifth planning is scheduled to take place in the coming days, and then its mission will be extended, initially for one Martian month.
Whether or not it lasts after that will depend on whether it is still in good condition and whether it helps, rather than impedes, the vehicle's goals of collecting soil and rock tests for future laboratory examination on Earth.
Chief engineer Bob Ballaram predicted that the limiting factor would be his ability to withstand freezing Mars nights, as temperatures drop to -130 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 degrees Celsius).
The ingenuity keeps warm with a solar-powered heater, he said, but is designed to last for only a month, and engineers aren't sure "how many freezing and thawing cycles can go through before something breaks."
NASA initially accepted that the persistence would move away from the area where it arrived in the Jezero crater on February 18, north of the equator.
This meant that the rover left creativity behind and transcended communications.
Despite this, the agency now needs to save perseverance in the area for some time after a rocky outcrop that is accepted to contain some of the oldest material in the crater floor has been found.
They hope to gather the first sample in July.
Creative feats have captured the public's imagination since it made its maiden flight on April 19, but NASA said this was not a factor in its decision to allow the robots to continue exploring Mars together.
"We really want to spend a great deal of time where we are, so it's kind of a coincidental fit," said Ken Farley, Project Perseverance scientist.
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