NASAs Helicopter ingenuity will attempt to fly the Red Planet early Monday morning, and you can watch live as the NASA team follows this historic test from Mission Control.
If the four legs of this tiny 1.8kg helicopter leave the surface of Mars, it will be the first time NASA – or any other space agency – has successfully achieved powered controlled flight on an alien planet. Success would introduce a whole new dimension to exploring the Red Planet.
You can watch the live stream below starting Monday, April 12, around 3:30 am EDT (12:30 pm PDT). NASA has not yet said when images or even video of the flight attempt will be available, but we are hoping for later on Monday.
Alternatively, you can NASA app YouTube, and FacebookFor those living in the Western Hemisphere, while this is not the best time to be awake, NASA will be holding a newsletter the same day at 11:00 a.m. EDT (8:00 a.m. PDT) to discuss preliminary flight results . .
Importantly, the current scheme is subject to change “as engineers work on the implementations, preflight checks and vehicle positioning of both persistence and ingenuity”, according to to NASA. Schedule updates can be checked on the Helicopter’s Watch Online web page
The team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will also assess wind speeds at the Octavia Butler landing site and the amount of power available to Ingenuity for its flight, as MiMi Aung, Ingenuity’s project manager, told reporters Friday. Amelia Quon, Ingenuity room test engineer, said the helicopter has been tested in a wide variety of possible wind conditions, but there was no perfect way to simulate the conditions on Mars.
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During tests on Earth, a prototype was exposed to winds blowing between 33 and 36 feet per second (10 to 11 meters per second), which should be stronger than what is expected in the Jezero Crater, as Quon explained during the press conference. Friday.
The Perseverance rover, after an uplink with the helicopter, will send the flight test results to an orbiter, which in turn sends the data back to the mission controllers on Earth. Speaking at the press conference, Tim Canham, Head of Ingenuity Operations at JPL, said we can expect 40 seconds of data as that is the expected duration of the inaugural test flight.
Ingenuity is equipped with a downward-facing camera that will take pictures in flight, Canham said. The team expects to receive grainy black and white images initially, followed by high-resolution images in the coming days. Taking pictures 30 times per second, Ingenuity’s camera will, in addition to capturing the flight, act as a sort of altimeter and help mission planners locate the helicopter’s landing site, he added.
The Perseverance rover will attempt to capture photos of Ingenuity’s test flight, which it will do with its Mastcam-Z camera. Elsa Jensen, Mastcam-Z uplink operations lead, said her team has rehearsed for the test flight, but cautioned that the images may not be great as nothing like this has ever been attempted and that there will undoubtedly be “surprises”. , ”As she explained on Friday. Interestingly, Canham said Perseverance’s microphones could be used to capture Ingenuity’s in-flight sounds during subsequent tests.
Ingenuity was brought to the surface last weekend and is now on its four legs. The helicopter was packed at the bottom of the rover for the trek to Mars, but the machine now survives on its own, successfully charges its batteries using its solar panels and communicates with its six-wheeled partner, Aung said. Significant milestones were reached this week when the helicopter’s four rotor blades were rolled out and tested at speeds of 50rpm and 2400rpm.
The two sets of blades are counter-rotating and carefully adjusted to maximize lift in the thin Martian air. Ingenuity’s rotors aren’t something that you “ take off the shelf, ” Aung said. Each super light blade weighs approximately 35 grams and consists of a foam core with a carbon fiber cover. The design aims to ensure rigidity, strength and lightness, she added. During the inaugural flight, Ingenuity’s rotors will spin at a blazing speed of 2537rpm. The high rotational speed has to do with the atmosphere of Mars, which is only 1% that of Earth.
Aung said this project would not have been possible 10 or 15 years ago, like now, engineers have the technology to spin the blades at such high speeds, use the autonomous and lightning-fast micro-controls of the rotor blades in flight, and design a vehicle capable of handling the harsh conditions. survive. conditions on Mars.
Regardless of what happens in flight, “we learn, be it success or failure,” Aung said. She pointed out the grim possibility that Ingenuity would topple over on landing. B.Since the helicopter cannot repair itself, such development would, in effect, put an end to the project. The tech demo is about “adding the sky dimension” to NASA’s toolkit for exploring Mars, Aung said. And as Canham pointed out, photos from the test will of course be nice, but the primary purpose of the mission is to get the flight data.
Should the flight go well and Ingenuity lands on all four feet, NASA will continue to test the helicopter over the course of 30 sols, aka Martian days.