Ingenuity Helicopter Inspires Future Flights on Mars (Mars Report - April 2023)
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history when it achieved the first powered, controlled flight on another planet – and it’s inspiring future aerial exploration of the Red Planet, too. In this Mars Report, Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides an update on the helicopter’s achievements and future plans.
This video shows testing for Sample Recovery Helicopters, which could serve as a backup retrieval system for Mars Sample Return, a campaign that intends to retrieve samples taken by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover for study here on Earth. These next-generation helicopters would be able to pick up and carry sample tubes in flight and also drive on the Martian surface.
Another future helicopter concept is the Mars Science Helicopter, a proposed six-rotor “hexacopter” that would be about the size of the Perseverance rover. It would bring important payloads to areas of Mars that are not currently accessible.
For more information on Ingenuity, go to: mars.nasa.gov/ingenuity
For more information on the Mars Sample Retrieval Helicopters, go to: mars.nasa.gov/msr/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Transcript
Teddy Tzanetos
Two years ago, Ingenuity proved that we could do the impossible. We can fly on Mars. Let's talk about what's next.
Raquel Villanueva
Here at the Surface Robotics Lab, testing is being done on future Mars helicopters. Teddy Tzanetos is here with us today to talk about the helicopter that started it all,. Ingenuity. Teddy, what's the latest?
Teddy Tzanetos
Ingenuity's doing great. Our baby’s still flying on the surface of Mars after two Earth years, one Mars year of total flight racked up 10ten kilometers or 6.2 miles of total distance flown. Our rotor system, our little cell phone processor on board are off the shelf. Lithium ion batteries are all doing fantastic. One area that we're looking very closely at is our solar panel.
You can imagine after two years of flying on the surface of Mars, you'll get some dust on top. But we still have ample margin and ample energy to keep up our flight operations and the extended mission of continuing to scout and push the flight envelope of what's possible. The testing being done in this room is part of the next helicopter mission to Mars, called the Ssample Rrecovery Hhelicopters.
The goal is to be a backup to get these samples back to Earth. Put simply, Perseverance collects the sample tubes. The Sample Return Lander will retrieve those samples directly from Perseverance. And then there's a rocket inside of that lander to send those samples back to Earth. As a backup to getting those sample tubes from Mars back to the lander –-
We're designing the next generation of helicopters to not only be able to pick up and carry a sample tube, but also drive around on the surface.
Raquel Villanueva
Are there any other ways Ingenuity is influencing future Mars exploration?
Teddy Tzanetos
We're looking at a research concept called Mars Science Helicopter. It's a hexacopter, so six rotors in a ring around a central structure. It's about the size of the rover. And you can imagine in the future you will have fleets of these Mars science helicopters flying around, bringing important payloads to areas of Mars that we've never been able to access before.
Raquel Villanueva
What's next for Ingenuity?
Teddy Tzanetos
So we're trying to fly faster, trying to fly higher. We've added new flight software capabilities. We can now detect landing sites, airborne. Those sorts of wins are coming from the surface of Mars directly into the design of the new sample recovery helicopters. And she's done a fantastic job. Surpassed any sort of metric of success that anyone on the team could have ever imagined for this little tiny 4 pound spacecraft.
Raquel Villanueva
To get the latest updates on Ingenuity, follow @NASAJPL and @NASAMars on social media, or take a deeper dive on the mission websites at Mars.NASA.gov