Reader's Response Draft 2.5

The article by Gohd (2021), 'Mars helicopter Ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on Red Planet', introduces features and functions of helicopter Ingenuity that took off successfully on April 19, 2021. Tucked in NASA's Perseverance Rover's belly, NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity is the first aircraft to be launched to the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, as part of the agency's Mars 2020 mission. Some of the Helicopter Ingenuity's features are solar panels, batteries, rotor blades, and cameras. (Gohd, 2021 and Grieicius, 2020) According to Gohd, the helicopter's solar panel charges Lithium-ion batteries that provide enough energy for one 90-second flight per Martian day. Gohd 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. In another article mentioned by Greicius, the helicopter has four carbon-fibre blades specially made for the flight attached to its two rotors and spins in the opposite direction at a speed of 2,400 rpm when in flight.

Despite certain limitations, Ingenuity has not only proven flight is possible on the Red Planet but also helped in future planetary exploration.

As it could not carry additional technology as an actual helicopter, the Ingenuity mission team aimed to prove powered flight was possible on Mars, which was a challenge. Ingenuity underwent multiple tests to prepare for its flight which included warming up its rotor blades. Through these tests, NASA found issues during its full-speed blades test, resulting in the delay of its initial flight debut. After its first two successful flights, Ingenuity went on for a third and fourth flight. However, due to a transmitting issue within its software, Ingenuity failed to enter flight mode. Its systems detected some problems, such as "violations to its strict timing requirements"(Tzanetos, 2021, para. 2), which made its flight a failed attempt. A week later, the team successfully updated its flight's software and successfully carried out its demo flight again (Tzanetos, 2021). Despite its tiny built, the Ingenuity has large blades that stretch to 4 feet across its body while standing about 19 inches tall. Its blades have an RPM of 2,500, while helicopters on earth that carry human passengers have an average of 450 RPM. 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.

Due to the distance between Mars and Earth, the mission team members could not control the Ingenuity in real-time. Therefore, a function was designed for Ingenuity to move in directions beamed out to mars autonomously. Other features of Ingenuity includes solar panels, batteries, 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 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. These cameras have allowed the mission team to take images, videos and record sound on the Red Planet, which was remarkable as this mission was not promising from the beginning, from its size to its given environmental condition. Ingenuity was not a fully equipped helicopter and due to Mar's thin atmosphere with the volume of less than 1% of the earth's. Other environmental challenges include the wind and dust storms on Mars and providing enough power for the craft from the solar panels to power its flights on the Red Planet.

Though flight Ingenuity is deficient in size and met through multiple test failures before its official flight, Ingenuity has proven that flight is possible on Mars and beyond its previously set goals, such as collecting images and autonomous navigation. In conclusion, Ingenuity's flights' success was a massive milestone that NASA and the mission team achieved. With Ingenuity, researchers can study more about the Red Planet and possibilities to venture onto other planets in the future no longer seemed impractical. It has aided engineers in providing better systems for future rovers and designers to improve future rover's designs. Eventually, they could even be human friendly, which may assist in future expeditions.

References

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

Tzanetos, T. (2021, June 25). Flight 8 success, software updates, and next steps. NASA Science Mars https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/308/flight-8-success-software-updates-and-next-steps/.

Greicius, T. (2020, July 14). 6 things to know about NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-things-to-know-about-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter