NASA’s workforce on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California is celebrating one 12 months since its plucky Ingenuity helicopter turned the primary plane to attain managed, powered flight on one other planet.
Ingenuity’s maiden flight came about on April 19, 2021, and the workforce marked event by sharing a video exhibiting that particular second 12 months in the past when information got here via that the drone-like plane had efficiently carried out its record-breaking first flight:
On April 19, 2021, our #MarsHelicopter made historical past by finishing the primary powered flight on one other planet. The flight lasted 39.1 seconds. One 12 months later, Ingenuity has logged over 46 minutes aloft and traveled 3.6 miles (5.8 km). See what’s subsequent: https://t.co/sOjNE1g7MR pic.twitter.com/19wyExAXHy
— NASA (@NASA) April 19, 2022
The workforce spent years designing, constructing, and testing the 4-pound, 19-inch-high helicopter earlier than strapping it to the underbelly of the Perseverance rover and sending all of it the way in which to the pink planet.
After reaching Mars in February 2021, Ingenuity carried out its first flight a few months later, taking to the martian skies in a low-altitude hover lasting 39 seconds. One among Perseverance’s cameras captured the historic second:
Video of the primary flight of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, together with takeoff and touchdown.
Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS pic.twitter.com/FCwhNPX8AS
— Marvel of Science (@wonderofscience) April 20, 2021
The flight was important because it proved that Ingenuity may deal with Mars’ super-thin environment, which is 100 instances thinner than Earth’s. It additionally gave NASA engineers the inspiration to contemplate extra advanced designs for future rotorcraft that can be utilized to help upcoming missions to Mars.
Within the 12 months since its maiden flight, Ingenuity has accomplished more and more advanced flights, logging a complete of 46 minutes within the air and touring 3.6 miles (5.8 kilometers) throughout 25 separate missions.
The plane’s most up-to-date flight, which came about on April 8, noticed it set a brand new velocity file of 12.3 mph (5.5 meters per second) whereas masking a file distance of 708.4 meters.
Its longest time within the air throughout a single flight is 169.5 seconds, recorded on a mission final summer time.
Performing far past expectations, the workforce at JPL transitioned Ingenuity from a know-how demonstration undertaking to an operations demonstration part after simply 4 flights, a transfer that paved the way in which for the helicopter to help Perseverance in its exploration of the distant planet as its seeks to search out proof of historical microbial life.
Since then, the plane has been utilizing its onboard cameras to {photograph} terrain to assist the JPL workforce plan protected and environment friendly routes for Perseverance to take between areas of curiosity.
However as you would possibly anticipate with a chunk of recent equipment, it hasn’t all been clean crusing for Ingenuity and the workforce has needed to overcome a number of technical points alongside the way in which. Its capability to beat these issues from hundreds of thousands of miles away to ship Ingenuity skyward many times is a mark of the helicopter’s unimaginable design and the engineers’ spectacular abilities.
Wanting forward, the workforce will probably be eager to push Ingenuity to its limits whereas holding the machine protected, so anticipate information of much more difficult flights within the coming months.
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