NASA has conducted dual-planet aircraft tests, with advanced rotor testing on Earth and record-breaking flights by the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. This pioneering work in rotorcraft technology is enhancing our understanding of flight in different atmospheric conditions, marking a significant step in Mars exploration. (Art concept of a future drone on Mars.)
Engineers will go beyond the ends of the Earth to find more performance for future Mars helicopters.
For the first time in history, two planets have been home to testing future aircraft designs. On this world, a new rotor that could be used with next-generation Mars helicopters was recently tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, spinning at near-supersonic speeds (0.95 Mach). Meanwhile, the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has achieved new altitude and airspeed records on the Red Planet in the name of experimental flight testing.
This video combines two perspectives of the 59th flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Video on the left was captured by the Mastcam-Z on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover; the black-and-white video on the right was taken by Ingenuity’s downward-pointing Navcam. The flight occurred on September 16. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
Ingenuity: Bridging Earth and Mars
“Our next-generation Mars helicopter testing has literally had the best of both worlds,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project manager and manager for the Mars Sample Recovery Helicopters. “Here on Earth, you have all the instrumentation and hands-on immediacy you could hope for while testing new aircraft components. On Mars, you have the real off-world conditions you could never truly re-create here on Earth.” That includes a whisper-thin atmosphere and significantly less gravity than on Earth.
Advanced Rotor Technology for Mars Exploration
The next-generation carbon fiber rotor blades being tested on Earth are almost 4 inches (more than 10 centimeters) longer than Ingenuity’s, with greater strength and a different design. NASA thinks these blades could enable bigger, more capable Mars helicopters. The challenge is, as the blade tips approach supersonic speeds, vibration-causing turbulence can quickly get out of hand.
Simulating Martian Conditions on Earth
To find a space big enough to create a Martian atmosphere on Earth, engineers looked to JPL’s 25-foot wide, 85-foot-tall (8-meter-by-26-meter) space simulator – a place where Surveyor, Voyager, and Cassini got their first taste of space-like environments. For three weeks in September, a team monitored sensors, meters, and cameras as the blades endured run after run at ever-higher speeds and greater pitch angles.
A dual rotor system for the next generation of Mars helicopters is tested in the 25-Foot Space Simulator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Sept.15. Longer and stronger than those used on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the carbon-fiber blades reached near-supersonic speeds during testing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We spun our blades up to 3,500 rpm, which is 750 revolutions per minute faster than the Ingenuity blades have gone,” said Tyler Del Sesto, Sample Recovery Helicopter deputy test conductor at JPL. “These more efficient blades are now more than a hypothetical exercise. They are ready to fly.”
At around the same time, and about 100 million miles (161 million kilometers) away, Ingenuity was being commanded to try things the Mars Helicopter team never imagined they would get to do.
Ingenuity’s Unprecedented Achievements
Ingenuity was originally slated to fly no more than five times. With its first flight entering the mission logbook more than two-and-a-half years ago, the helicopter has exceeded its planned 30-day mission by 32 times and has flown 66 times. Every time Ingenuity goes airborne, it covers new ground, offering a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve. But lately, Team Ingenuity has been taking their solar-powered rotorcraft out for a spin like never before.
Håvard Grip, chief pilot of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, documents the details of each flight in the mission’s logbook, The Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons, after each flight. Entries for Flights 9 and 10 are seen here. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Over the past nine months, we have doubled our max airspeed and altitude, increased our rate of vertical and horizontal acceleration, and even learned to land slower,” said Travis Brown, Ingenuity’s chief engineer at JPL. “The envelope expansion provides invaluable data that can be used by mission designers for future Mars helicopters.”
Navigating the Challenges of Martian Flight
Limited by available energy and motor-temperature considerations, Ingenuity flights usually last around two to three minutes. Although the helicopter can cover more ground in a single flight by flying faster, flying too fast can confuse the onboard navigation system. The system uses a camera that recognizes rocks and other surface features as they move through its field of view. If those features whiz by too fast, the system can lose its way.
So, to achieve a higher maximum ground speed, the team sends commands for Ingenuity to fly at higher altitudes (instructions are sent to the helicopter before each flight), which keeps features in view longer. Flight 61 established a new altitude record of 78.7 feet (24 meters) as it checked out Martian wind patterns. With Flight 62 Ingenuity set a speed record of 22.3 mph (10 meters per second) – and scouted a location for the Perseverance rover’s science team.
The team has also been experimenting with Ingenuity’s landing speed. The helicopter was designed to contact the surface at a relatively brisk 2.2 mph (1 mps) so its onboard sensors could easily confirm touchdown and shut down the rotors before it could bounce back into the air. A helicopter that lands more slowly could be designed with lighter landing gear. So, on Flights 57, 58, and 59 they gave it a whirl, demonstrating Ingenuity could land at speeds 25% slower than the helicopter was originally designed to land at.
Future Plans for Ingenuity
All this Martian Chuck Yeager-ing is not over. In December, after solar conjunction, Ingenuity is expected to perform two high-speed flights during which it will execute a special set of pitch-and-roll angles designed to measure its performance.
“The data will be extremely useful in fine-tuning our aero-mechanical models of how rotorcraft behave on Mars,” said Brown. “On Earth, such testing is usually performed in the first few flights. But that’s not where we’re flying. You have to be a little more careful when you’re operating that far away from the nearest repair shop, because you don’t get any do-overs.”
More About Ingenuity
Ingenuity began its life at Mars as a technology demonstration. It first flew on April 19, 2021, hovering 10 feet (3 meters) for 30 seconds. Four more flights in as many weeks added 499 seconds and saw the helicopter flying horizontally over the surface for 1,171 feet (357 meters). After proving flight was possible on Mars, Ingenuity entered an operations demonstration phase in May 2021 to show how aerial scouting could benefit future exploration of Mars and other worlds.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.
At NASA Headquarters, Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
dr mehrdad kesiri | November 25, 2023 at 1:40 pm | Reply
This article was prepared on 3 December 1402 and was very interestingly translated and it is related to the stars that came to the sun and the planets that came to the sun from the big arms of the galaxy and now became the moons of the solar system,or became the number of moons now.Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter will reach 231 moons.I wrote an article about the destruction of the earth’s civilization a hundred million years ago and the structure of God’s existence around a hundred million years ago, which was built by humans, God and those humans through the science of physics, chemistry and artificial intelligence.They created the superior force, which is the strangest and most complex structure of human beings on earth.That God was created by those humans who lived on earth before us.They had millions of years of history and civilization, and they were much, much more advanced than us earthlings.I am talking about religious issues.and astronomical issues, and I am talking about the war and killing of the people of Iran, Palestine and Israel, which is the cause of these wars and the killing of the defenseless people, the leader of the Islamic Republic, maybe he is not toblame, but I do not judge about this, because I read this news from Iranian sites that are against the republic.are Islamic, and I tried to convey the news and events that took place in Iran, which caused the killing of Iranian people, to those who are in America, and I ask you to contact me about this issue and tell me Send me a shortmessage, my email has been disabled and I can’t access my email, just send SMS to my mobile phone and leave my comments on the most popular websites in America and ask the American government officials to stop the civil war in Iran and the killingof defenseless people.take over Palestine, Israel and Afghanistan in the Middle East.The authorities of the American Parliament and the House of Representatives, with the help of its allies, which are the Soviet Union, Britain and France, stop the war in the Middle East.God, through inspiration and revelation, has given me a duty that I must I must give this message to the great powers of the world, especially the United States, so that you Iranians can convey my message to the authorities of the American government.I am neither a prophet nor the imam of the time, all the people on earth are their own chosen ones, and I am the special chosen one of God and I am no different from other people.This is the message of the people of Tehran that I heard from those who were not political and were not active in any party and were in favor of the right and are dissatisfied with the government of the Islamic Republic, Iranian man, and they told methat you should take our message from Iran to the ears of high-ranking government officials.America should remove those who killed people in the Islamic Republic of Iran government in the years 1357, 1388, 1400, 1401 and 1402, just as America removed Saddam, and punish the perpetrators of crimes and massacres.It must be done by America’s allies and great powers, and nothing can be done by defenseless people who are not armed
dr mehrdad kesiri | November 25, 2023 at 1:55 pm | Reply
This article was prepared on 3 December 1402 and was very interestingly translated and it is related to the stars that came to the sun and the planets that came to the sun from the big arms of the galaxy and now became the moons of the solar system,or became the number of moons now.Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter will reach 231 moons.I wrote an article about the destruction of the earth’s civilization a hundred million years ago and the structure of God’s existence around a hundred million years ago, which was built by humans, God and those humans through the science of physics, chemistry and artificial intelligence.They created the superior force, which is the strangest and most complex structure of human beings on earth.That God was created by those humans who lived on earth before us.They had millions of years of history and civilization, and they were much, much more advanced than us earthlings.I am talking about religious issues.and astronomical issues, and I am talking about the war and killing of the people of Iran, Palestine and Israel, which is the cause of these wars and the killing of the defenseless people, the leader of the Islamic Republic, maybe he is not toblame, but I do not judge about this, because I read this news from Iranian sites that are against the republic.are Islamic, and I tried to convey the news and events that took place in Iran, which caused the killing of Iranian people, to those who are in America, and I ask you to contact me about this issue and tell me Send me a shortmessage, my email has been disabled and I can’t access my email, just send SMS to my mobile phone and leave my comments on the most popular websites in America and ask the American government officials to stop the civil war in Iran and the killingof defenseless people.take over Palestine, Israel and Afghanistan in the Middle East.The authorities of the American Parliament and the House of Representatives, with the help of its allies, which are the Soviet Union, Britain and France, stop the war in the Middle East.God, through inspiration and revelation, has given me a duty that I must I must give this message to the great powers of the world, especially the United States, so that you Iranians can convey my message to the authorities of the American government.I am neither a prophet nor the imam of the time, all the people on earth are their own chosen ones, and I am the special chosen one of God and I am no different from other people.This is the message of the people of Tehran that I heard from those who were not political and were not active in any party and were in favor of the right and are dissatisfied with the government of the Islamic Republic, Iranian man, and they told methat you should take our message from Iran to the ears of high-ranking government officials.America should remove those who killed people in the Islamic Republic of Iran government in the years 1357, 1388, 1400, 1401 and 1402, just as America removed Saddam, and punish the perpetrators of crimes and massacres.It must be done by America’s allies and great powers, and nothing can be done by defenseless people who are not armed
Because the illegitimate and illegitimate regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran massacred and beheaded the revolutionary people on the streets of the big cities of Iran, a large number of young students were taken to prison by the order of the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei.The people of Iran demanded a referendum and They are freedom and democracy, the people say that all the crimes, conflicts and killing of teenagers and girls, especially in Tehran, because of the mandatory hijab in big cities, were done by the order of theSupreme Leader Ali Khamenei.I am Dr. Mehrdad.I gathered the street to protest the mandatory hijab from among the people of Iran and I currently have no opinion about the authorities of the Islamic Republic and I am only against the sarcopah and killing of people who were innocently killed by agents affiliated with the Islamic Republicof the people of Iran in years.As I said, they were killed in the cities of Tehran, Zahedan and Sanandaj, and the majority of Iranian men do not want the illegitimate regime and dictator of the Islamic Republic.Hello, considering the mass and weight of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, it can be understood that the moons that are now around Jupiter and Saturn were the same planets that came with the stars from the big arms of the galaxy to Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter.I discovered a secret that is possible in The world has not been discovered by anyone, I’m not sure because I don’t live in America, NASA astronomers may have made this discovery.I read Sam’s talk about the observations about the common facet with Earth and Jupiter.We have Earthlings.If Jupiter and Saturn was not there, the planet Earth was destroyed, the gravity of the four gaseous planets, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter was so strong that it prevented the collision of the stars and the companion planet that were coming towards theEarth, and those planets are now Jupiter’s moons that did not reach the Earth, but at least 300 planets that came towards the sun, 234 of those planets at this time now became the moons of gaseous planets like Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter.For sure, this question arises in your mind that what happened to the stars that came with these planets, I must say that the stars Those who came towards the sun, none of them survived, all of them hit the planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturnand Jupiter, and it is strange and amazing that the size of those stars and especially their mass was such that the strong gravity of the sun did not allow them to Even if the sun came close, those mentioned stars were exactly at the same distance asthe planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter due to the flow of positive and negative magnetic poles in the core.They were coming towards the sun, this happened, but they passed a few trillion kilometers from the sun, but those stars whose mass was a million times less than the sun came within a few billion kilometers of the sun and collided with the gas planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter, and the planets with Those stars came, those planets became the moons of the planets of the solar system
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