After six months on Mars, NASA's tiny helicopter is still flying high

He was supposed to fly only five times. And yet NASA's helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, completed 12 flights and is not ready to write off, reports marsdaily.

Given the stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency extended the mission Ingenuity For undefined period.

A tiny helicopter became a permanent companion of the rover Perseverance, whose main mission is to look for signs of ancient life on Mars.

"Everything works so well," said Josh Ravich, head of the engineering group Ingenuity. "On the surface, things are better than we expected."

Hundreds of people have contributed to the project, but only about a dozen currently perform day-to-day roles.

Ravych joined the team five years ago.

"When I had the opportunity to work on the helicopter project, I think I had the same reaction as everyone else: 'Is this even possible?'"

His initial doubts were understandable: the air on Mars has a density equivalent to only one percent of the density of the Earth's atmosphere. By comparison, a helicopter flight to Mars would be like flying in thin air almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) above Earth.

And getting to Mars was not easy. "Invention" had to withstand the initial load when taking off from the Earth, and then landing on February 18 on the red planet after a seven-month journey through space, tied to the belly of the rover.

Once in the new environment, the tiny (four pounds, or 1,8 kg) helicopter had to survive the icy cold of Martian nights, receiving heat from solar panels that charge its batteries during the day. And its flights are controlled using a set of sensors, since the 15-minute delay in communication with the Earth makes real-time guidance impossible.

Scout duties

April 19 company Ingenuity made its first flight, going down in history as the first motorized ship to fly on another planet.

Exceeding all expectations, he flew 11 more times.

"We were really able to cope with a stronger wind than we expected," Ravich told AFP.

"I think that by the third flight, we actually achieved all of our engineering goals ... (and) got all the information that we hoped to get," said Ravich, who works at NASA's famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which developed the helicopter.

With a poet Ingenuity rose to a height of 39 feet (12 meters), and his last flight lasted two minutes and 49 seconds. In total, he covered a distance of 1,6 miles.

In May Ingenuity made its first one-way flight, landing outside the relatively flat "airfield" that had been carefully chosen as its original home.

But not everything went smoothly. The sixth flight caused some excitement.

After a dangerous loss of balance due to a malfunction that affected the photos taken in flight, as a result of trying to stabilize, the tiny ship was able to recover. He landed safe and sound, and the problem was solved.

"Ingenuity" is now headed in search of a path to "Persistence" using its high-resolution color camera.

The task is twofold: to pave a path for the rover that will be safe, but also of scientific interest, especially from a geological point of view.

Ken Farley, head of the research group Perseverance, explained how the photographs were taken Ingenuity during its 12th flight, they showed that the region, named Southern Seita, is less interesting than scientists had hoped.

As a result, the rover may not get there.

Favorable conditions

After more than six months on the red planet, this small drone has won more and more fans on Earth, it is depicted on coffee cups and T-shirts sold on the Internet.

What explains the ego's longevity?

"Until now, the environment has been very favorable: temperature, wind, sun, dust in the air... It's still very cold, but it could have been much worse," Ravych said.

Theoretically, the helicopter should still work for some time. But the approaching Martian winter will be difficult.

NASA engineers, now armed with flight data Ingenuity, are already working on next-generation ego successors.

"Something from 20 to 30 kg (in the range) may be able to carry a scientific payload," Ravych said.

These future payloads may simply include rock samples collected Perseverance.

NASA plans to receive these samples during a future mission sometime in the 2030s.