Ingenuity is the name of a small helicopter – an unmanned drone that was transported to Mars by the Perseverance rover. This one landed on the Red Planet on February 18.
First, the drone, which was attached in a protective capsule at the bottom of the rover, was lowered very slowly to the ground. Last week, the propellers were tested, initially with a speed of 50 revolutions per minute, and then 2.4 thousand. revolutions per minute.
The first flight of the drone was planned on April 11, then NASA postponed the launch to April 14, then it was announced that the delay would be even longer. But the Martian helicopter is back in action. The new date is Monday, April 19. At. 12.15 Polish time, the agency will provide a coverage of the mission control center. The conference summarizing the flight is scheduled for 20:00.
It will be the first motorized flight over a planet other than Earth, but it will not be spectacular. The device is to ascend 3 meters in height, hover in the air and land. More flights are planned in the future, much depends on the success of the former.
NASA ensures that the helicopter is safe and in good condition. A software patch was successfully developed to eliminate the identified error in the command sequence.
Although the drone will fly automatically, NASA engineers have to take several factors into account. Ingenuity cannot fly at night, because in navigation it consists in observing the ground through cameras. Another issue is the need to coordinate this experiment with the research conducted by Perseverance. Energy consumption and Martian winds are also important. The distance between Mars and Earth is also problematic. Data from the device will be uploaded many minutes after it has landed.
We are glad that you are with us. Subscribe to the Onet newsletter to receive the most valuable content from us.
Source: PAP, Onet
(mba)
–
