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Mars Helicopter Flight Test Promises Wright Brothers Moment for NASA

Reuters

   LOS ANGELES - NASA hopes to score a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment
   on Monday as it attempts to send a miniature helicopter buzzing over
   the surface of Mars in what would be the first powered, controlled
   flight of an aircraft on another planet.

   Landmark achievements in science and technology can seem humble by
   conventional measurements. The Wright Brothers' first controlled flight
   in the world of a motor-driven airplane, near Kitty Hawk, North
   Carolina, in 1903 covered just 120 feet (37 meters) in 12 seconds.

   A modest debut is likewise in store for NASA's twin-rotor,
   solar-powered helicopter Ingenuity.

   If all goes to plan, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) whirligig will slowly ascend
   straight up to an altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) above the Martian
   surface, hover in place for 30 seconds, then rotate before descending
   to a gentle landing on all four legs.
   NASA's Ingenuity helicopter begins a Slow spin test of its blades,
   April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. (Credit:
   NASA)

   While the mere metrics may seem less than ambitious, the "air field"
   for the interplanetary test flight is 173 million miles from Earth, on
   the floor of a vast Martian basin called Jezero Crater. Success hinges
   on Ingenuity executing the pre-programmed flight instructions using an
   autonomous pilot and navigation system.

   "The moment our team has been waiting for is almost here," Ingenuity
   project manager MiMi Aung said at a recent briefing at NASA's Jet
   Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.

   NASA itself is likening the experiment to the Wright Brothers' feat 117
   years ago, paying tribute to that modest but monumental first flight by
   having affixed a tiny swath of wing fabric from the original Wright
   flyer under Ingenuity's solar panel.

   The robot rotorcraft was carried to the red planet strapped to the
   belly of NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, a mobile astrobiology lab that
   touched down on Feb. 18 in Jezero Crater after a nearly seven-month
   journey through space.

   Although Ingenuity's flight test is set to begin around 3:30 a.m.
   Eastern Time on Monday (0730 GMT Monday), data confirming its outcome
   is not expected to reach JPL's mission control until around 6:15 a.m.
   ET on Monday.

   NASA also expects to receive images and video of the flight that
   mission engineers hope to capture using cameras mounted on the
   helicopter and the Perseverance rover, which will be parked 250 feet
   (76 meters) away from Ingenuity's flight zone.

   If the test succeeds, Ingenuity will undertake several additional,
   lengthier flights in the weeks ahead, though it will need to rest four
   to five days in between each to recharge its batteries. Prospects for
   future flights rest largely on a safe, four-point touchdown the first
   time.

   "It doesn't have a self-righting system, so if we do have a bad
   landing, that will be the end of the mission," Aung said. An
   unexpectedly strong wind gust is one potential peril that could spoil
   the flight.

   NASA hopes Ingenuity -- a technology demonstration separate from
   Perseverance's primary mission to search for traces of ancient
   microorganisms -- paves the way for aerial surveillance of Mars and
   other destinations in the solar system, such as Venus or Saturn's moon
   Titan.

   While Mars possesses much less gravity to overcome than Earth, its
   atmosphere is just 1% as dense, presenting a special challenge for
   aerodynamic lift. To compensate, engineers equipped Ingenuity with
   rotor blades that are larger (4-feet-long) and spin more rapidly than
   would be needed on Earth for an aircraft of its size.

   The design was successfully tested in vacuum chambers built at JPL to
   simulate Martian conditions, but it remains to be seen whether
   Ingenuity will fly on the red planet.

   The small, lightweight aircraft already passed an early crucial test by
   demonstrating it could withstand punishing cold, with nighttime
   temperatures dropping as low as 130 degrees below zero Fahrenheit
   (minus 90 degrees Celsius), using solar power alone to recharge and
   keep internal components properly heated.

   The planned flight was delayed for a week by a technical glitch during
   a test spin of the aircraft's rotors on April 9. NASA said that issue
   has since been resolved.