NASA’s Mars Creative Helicopter captured this image of the path tracked by the Persevering Rover during its ninth flight, on July 5. Part of the landing gear of the helicopter can be seen at the top left. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
–Ingenuity’s ninth flight has provided images that will help the Perseverance rover team develop its science plan going forward.
This image taken by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter on July 5 during this ambitious ninth flight offers scientists and engineers working with the agency’s Persevering Mars spacecraft an unprecedented opportunity to explore the road ahead. Creativity provides new insights into where different rock layers start and end, with each layer serving as a time capsule of how conditions changed in the site’s paleoclimate. The journey also reveals the obstacles that explorers may have to face while exploring Jezero Crater.
During the flight – designed to test the helicopter’s ability to act as aerial reconnaissance – creativity flew over the dune field dubbed “Séítah”. Perseverance made a southward detour around the dunes, which would have been too risky for a six-wheeler to attempt to cross.
The image of Jezero Crater described here illustrates the route of the first scientific expedition (yellow fleas) and the second (light yellow fleas) to survive. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
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The color image from Ingenuity, taken from an altitude of about 33 feet (10 meters), gave the rover team more detail than they would get from the orbital images (like the image above) they normally use to plan routes. While cameras like HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can break rocks about 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter, missions typically rely on spacecraft images to spot smaller rocks or terrain features.
“Once the rover gets close to the site, we get an Earth-scale image that we can compare with orbital images,” said Ken Welford, deputy project scientist for Perseverance, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “With creativity, we now have a medium-sized image that fills the gap in resolution nicely.”
Here are some photos of Ibdaa, who completed the long journey back to Earth on July 8.
raised edges
His creation (his shadow is visible at the bottom of this image) provides a high-resolution glimpse of the rock feature dubbed the “raised edge”. They belong to fracture systems, which often serve as underground fluid flow pathways.
These locations, dubbed “Rising Edges,” were discovered by NASA’s innovative Mars helicopter during its ninth flight, on July 5. Scientists hope to visit “higher altitudes” with persistent explorers in the future. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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In Jezero Crater, this lake has existed for billions of years. Spying on the mountains in this image from Martian orbit, scientists wonder if water might have flowed through these crevices at some point, dissolving minerals that could have helped feed ancient microbial colonies. That would make them a prime location for searching for signs of ancient life – and possibly for excavating specimens.
The samples Perseverance took will eventually be stored on Mars on future missions that would bring them back to Earth for in-depth analysis.
“Our current plan is to visit and investigate Raised Ridges closely,” Williford said. “The helicopter images are much better in terms of resolution than the orbital images we used. Learning these things will allow us to ensure that visiting these hills is important for the team.”
dunes
Dunes like the one in this photo keep rover drivers like Oliver Tobit from JPL awake at night: they can easily crash a two-ton rover. After landing in February, determined scientists asked if it was possible to make a direct path through this terrain; Toupet’s answer is complicated.
NASA’s Mars Innovation Helicopter hovers over the desert in the area of Jezero Crater nicknamed “Séítah” on its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. Part of the helicopter’s landing gear can be seen at top left. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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“Sand is a major concern,” said Tobet, who leads a team of mobility experts who plan to lead persistence. “If we push the slope into the dune, we can embed ourselves in it and not get out of it.”
Toupet is also a pioneer of the AutoNav feature recently tested by Perseverance, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to autonomously pilot the rover over longer distances than can be achieved. While AutoNav is good at dodging rocks and other hazards, it can’t detect sand, so drivers still need to define a “protection zone” around areas where the rover could get stuck.
bedrock
Without creativity, as seen in the silhouette below, scholars of perseverance would not be able to see this part of Séítah so clearly: it is too gritty and perseverance cannot visit it. The unique scenery provides enough detail to examine these rocks and get a better understanding of the area from Jezero Crater.
NASA’s innovative Mars helicopter hovers over these dunes and rocks during its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. While the Mars Perseverance Agency can’t risk falling into this sand, scientists can still study this area through its creativity studies. Images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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As the rover makes its way around the mound field, it may perform what the team calls a “foot dive” in some scientifically interesting locations with interesting bedrock. While Toupet and his team won’t be trying to swim here, recent images from Ingenuity will allow them to plot potential regression pathways in other areas along the path of the first surviving science expedition.
“Helicopters are an invaluable asset for roving planning because they provide high-resolution images of the terrain we want to traverse,” Tobitt said. “We can better assess the size of the dune and where the underlying rock formed. This is great information for us; this helps determine the areas the rover can traverse and whether certain high-value science targets can be achieved.”
More about mission
Astrobiology is one of the main goals of persistence missions to Mars, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. It will characterize the geological explorer of the planet and its past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the red planet, and will be the first mission to collect and store Martian rock and regolite (cracked rock and dust).
NASA’s next mission, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), will send a spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Lunar-to-Mars Exploration Approach, which includes the Artemis mission to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, operated by the NASA-run California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, builds and operates the rover operations.
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter was built by JPL’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which also manages the technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Department of Space Science, Atmospheric Research and Technology. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided critical flight performance analysis and technical assistance during the development of Ingenuity. AeroVironment Inc. Qualcomm and SolAero also helped with the design and key components of the vehicle. Lockheed Martin Space designs and manufactures the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.
JPL manages MRO missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. HiRISE, built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., is operated by the University of Arizona, in Tucson, in Boulder, Colorado.
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