Tag: Ingenuity helicopter

Mars Helicopter Goes the Distance in Third Flight

Article by Mike Wall                                               April 25, 2021                                              (space.com)

• On February 18th, NASA’s Perseverance rover along with the Ingenuity helicopter landed together inside the 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater on Mars. On April 3rd, the small helicopter deployed from the rover’s belly, kicking off a month-long flight campaign. On April 19th the solar-powered helicopter made its 39-second vertical test flight reaching a maximum altitude of about 16.5 feet. On April 22nd, Ingenuity repeated the initial test, but stayed aloft for nearly 52 seconds while moving side-to-side a total of 13 feet. NASA receives the Ingenuity helicopter’s communications data through the Perseverance rover which is relayed to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) mission control in Pasadena, California.

• On April 25th, the four pound Ingenuity helicopter reached the same 16.5 feet altitude, but increased its airspeed from 0.5 meters per second to 2 meters per second (about 4.5 mph), traveling 164 feet north, then returning to its launch pad, dubbed ‘Wright Brothers Field’. Officials at NASA’s JPL mission control tweeted: “Third flight in the history books.” “ The space chopper is demonstrating critical capabilities that could enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future missions to Mars & beyond.”

• The Ingenuity helicopter mission proves that aerial exploration is possible on Mars. Although Mars has an atmosphere only 1% as dense as that of Earth at sea level, Mars helicopters could serve as scouts on future Red Planet missions, and also gathering data themselves. But this time, Ingenuity is not doing any science work. It is only attempting to demonstrate that it can fly. Ingenuity does carry a 13-megapixel color camera to snap photos of the Perseverance rover’s tire tracks on Mars.

• The JPL ‘Ingenuity team’ hopes to get in two more flights by early May. These last two sorties will likely be “really adventurous,” Ingenuity project manager MiMi Aung said during a news conference earlier this month, stressing that she and her colleagues want to push the little chopper’s limits. Then that will be it for Ingenuity. Perseverance will then begin to focus on the rover’s own science mission with two main tasks: hunting for signs of ancient Mars life inside the Jezero crater, which hosted a lake and river delta long ago; and collecting samples to return to Earth at a later time.

 

                     Perseverance rover

Make it a hat trick on the Red Planet for NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity.

The 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper aced its third-ever Martian flight early this morning (April 25), adding to its already impressive resume.

“Third flight in the history books.” officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California wrote on Twitter. “Our #MarsHelicopter continues to set records, flying faster and farther. The space chopper is demonstrating critical capabilities that could enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future missions to Mars & beyond.”

                           MiMi Aung

And today’s sortie was significantly more complex than Ingenuity’s previous two

Ingenuity helicopter’s first aerial color image

flights, which took place on Monday (April 19) and Thursday (April 22), respectively. On its historic, 39-second debut hop — the first powered, controlled flight for an aircraft on a world beyond Earth — the solar-powered helicopter went straight up and down and reached a maximum altitude of about 16.5 feet (5 meters).

Ingenuity went about that high on flight number two but stayed up for nearly 52 seconds and moved side-to-side a total of 13 feet (4 m).

“For the third flight, we’re targeting the same altitude, but we are going to open things up a bit, too, increasing our max airspeed from 0.5 meters per second to 2 meters per second (about 4.5 mph) as we head 50 meters (164 feet) north and return to land at Wright Brothers Field,” Ingenuity chief pilot Håvard Grip, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, wrote in a blog post Friday (April 23). (The Ingenuity team named the chopper’s flight zone after aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright.)

3:08 minute video of rover and helicopter video footage of Mars (‘Mars Mission’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Jacksonville Native’s Work Part of Mission to Mars

Article by Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree                                 August 12, 2020                                (myjournalcourier.com)

• When Jacksonville, Illinois native Susan Gorton was in high school, she and her family took a vacation to Houston where she decided she wanted to be a part of NASA. Today she is the manager of the Revolution Vertical Lift Technology Project which helped design the helicopter ‘Ingenuity’ that is now on its way to Mars with the Rover Perseverance. It is scheduled to land on Mars in February.

• Gorton was approached by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a helicopter that could fly in the Mars atmosphere. A helicopter allows more exploration than a rover alone could provide. “The rover can only see ahead like 10 meters, so they wanted something that could act like an aerial scout,” said Gorton. The softball sized helicopter was conceptualized by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and developed and tested by Gorton’s team starting in 2013. In 2018, NASA announced it was moving forward with the project. “I never would have guessed that this is where I’d end up,” said Gorton.

• The Ingenuity helicopter is softball-sized, (four pounds heavy, with twin 4-foot rotor blades). Because no one would be directly in control of its operations, the helicopter needed to have some autonomy to correct its flight patterns and balance. Among the problems the team had to navigate were an atmosphere that is 95% carbon dioxide and temperatures that range from minus 14 degrees to minus 117 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. The helicopter will be able to communicate with the rover and send pictures, which the rover will relay to NASA Mission Control. Mission Control will relay instructions to the helicopter through the rover.

• This demonstration model will prove whether a helicopter can operate on Mars. Another model will be developed if it is functional. “It’s an exciting time — a feeling of ‘boy, I hope this works,’” Gorton said. “We won’t know for sure if we did it until it reaches Mars.” “If it is successful, [it opens] up the landscape of another planet, the ability to explore much more of [a] planet. It’s a leap forward in extraterrestrial exploration.”

• [Editor’s Note]  I think that NASA is exaggerating the atmospheric conditions with which the Ingenuity helicopter must contend. A 95% carbon dioxide atmosphere shouldn’t affect the air pressure. But several secret space program whistleblowers have said that the Martian air is breathable, so long as you aren’t running wind sprints. They would typically carry along an small oxygen tank on the surface of the planet for whenever they felt they needed more oxygen. And the Mars sky is blue, which is an indication of an oxygen-rich atmosphere. So Mars likely contains more oxygen than NASA is letting on. Also, whistleblowers do not report that Mars’ temperature never gets above minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature on Mars is much more comfortable than NASA is telling us. For some reason, NASA doesn’t want the public to know just how hospitable Mars really is. Is this a ploy to delay public exploration of Mars for as long as possible? Do they not want us to find out that not only are there over a dozen Interplanetary Corporate Conglomerate (deep state) human work colonies and an allied Nazi ‘Dark Fleet’ Mars Defense Force already established on Mars (below ground), but several indigenous races still living on the planet as well?

 

As a Routt Catholic High School sophomore on summer vacation with her family in Houston, Susan Gorton found her dream.

She wanted to be a part of NASA.

            Susan Gorton

For the Jacksonville native, seeing the space agency’s visitor center started her along a path that took her to manager of the Revolution Vertical Lift Technology Project.

Now, a softball-size helicopter she helped design and test is making its way through space on its way to Mars.

“I never would have guessed that this is where I’d end up,” Gorton said. “I wouldn’t have guessed something I helped with would be in space.”

Gorton said most people think of just astronauts and space when they think of NASA, but the program is also studying aeronautics, such as airplanes and helicopters.

“We do a lot with research on how to make vehicles better,” Gorton said.

In her department, Gorton focuses on vertical-lift vehicles, making them faster, quieter and safer.

Gorton was approached by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory about a project to fly a helicopter in the Mars atmosphere. The goal is to allow aerial scouting and more exploration than a rover would be able to provide.

“They were developing a rover going to Mars and they were working on how to get something on Mars that can move ahead of the rover,” Gorton said. “The rover can only see ahead like 10 meters, so they wanted something that could act like an aerial scout.”

She and her team helped develop the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, which launched as a part of the Mars 2020 Rover Perseverance on an Atlas V rocket on July 30. It is scheduled to land on Mars in February.

 

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

How the Mars Perseverance Rover Will Get to the Red Planet

Article by Chris Ciaccia July 29, 2020 (nypost.com)

• On July 30th, NASA’s $2.1 billion ‘Perseverance’ rover (pictured above) set out for Mars, along with the first helicopter to travel to Mars, known as ‘Ingenuity’. Among other tasks, the rover and the helicopter will be looking for signs of extraterrestrial life. The Perseverance will land at the Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, joining the still-functioning Curiosity rover and the now-deceased Opportunity rover. NASA’s long-term goal is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.

• Like its predecessors, Perseverance is powered by a nuclear energy system known as ‘Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator’ thanks to the US Department of Energy. Says Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and National Nuclear Security Administratior Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, “From preparing astronauts for cratered terrain to building boxes for moon rocks to providing electricity from nuclear sources, I’m proud to say that we’ve lent our unique expertise for exploration of the solar system… for nearly 60 years.”

• In 2014, the Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy with Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory were tasked to construct the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator and its plutonium fuel to power the Perseverance rover. But the Department of Energy partnership with NASA goes back to the 1960s when the DoE provided radioisotope power systems to the Apollo missions, said DoE Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar to Fox News.

• Radioisotope power systems provide a steady power source in parts of the solar system that are dark or dusty. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers used Radioisotope Heater Units with a mission life of 7 and 14 years respectively, significantly longer than the 3-month primary mission lifetime. Curiosity is still going strong 7 years, over 3 times the primary mission timeline. The two longest-operating radioisotope power system missions are Voyager I and II, which are still in operation 43 years later.

• Perseverance’s ‘SuperCam’ was designed, built and tested at DoE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with the French space agency, Centre national d’études spatiales (National Center for Space Studies). It uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to study mineral composition, hardness and texture of Martian rocks and soils and will search for organic compounds related to Mars’ geologic past.

• The DoE’s Office of Science facilities also support the study of materials returned from NASA space missions to Mars, including the use of X-ray and electron imaging to study the form and shape of rock samples and various spectroscopy techniques to reveal the chemical composition.

 

            Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty

After it was delayed three times to iron out issues, NASA’s Perseverance rover is slated on July 30 to head to Mars, where it will perform a number of tasks, including looking for fossilized evidence of extraterrestrial life.

                        Paul Dabbar

The $2.1 billion rover will also come with the first helicopter, known as Ingenuity, that will let researchers understand the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet. NASA’s long-term goal is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.

Once Perseverance lands on Mars at the Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, it will join the still functioning Curiosity rover and the now-deceased Opportunity rover on the Red Planet.

Similar to its predecessors, Perseverance is being powered by a nuclear energy system known as Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), thanks to the Department of Energy. However, using nuclear power isn’t anything new for NASA.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has “supported NASA missions for nearly 60 years,” Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty told Fox News.

“From preparing astronauts for cratered terrain to building boxes for moon rocks to providing electricity from nuclear sources, I’m proud to say that we’ve lent our unique expertise for exploration of the solar system,” Gordon-Hagerty added.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Copyright © 2019 Exopolitics Institute News Service. All Rights Reserved.