Mars Report: Update on NASA’s Perseverance Rover & Ingenuity Helicopter (April 16, 2021)
As NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter makes progress towards its first test flight, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has begun preparing to test the MOXIE technology demonstration that converts Martian air into oxygen, and investigating some nearby rocks with its science instruments. This video provides a mission update from Ingenuity Chief Engineer Bob Balaram, and Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley.
Ingenuity is the first aircraft on Mars and will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. If Ingenuity succeeds, future Mars exploration could include an aerial dimension.
For more information on Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance.
For more information on the Ingenuity Mars helicopter's latest status updates, visit go.nasa.gov/3v0mzay and https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Transcript
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MARS REPORT: UPDATE ON
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PERSEVERANCE AND INGENUITY
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NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance
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Rover and the Ingenuity Mars
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Helicopter have been busy
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after landing on the Red Planet
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a few weeks ago.
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Today we are joined by
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Perseverance project scientist
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Ken Farley and
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Ingenuity Chief Engineer
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Bob Balaram to get an
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update on what's happening
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with the rover and
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the helicopter.
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Bob, can you give us the
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latest update on Ingenuity?
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Yes, we have been working
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on a fix to a problem that has
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prevented us from going into
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flight mode, where we can
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spin the rotors up fast.
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We have both a long-term fix
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that's making its way to the
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spacecraft as well as some
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workarounds that we sent
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on Thursday.
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And we just got the results
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on Friday and we will
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be analyzing those results to
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see what the high speed spin
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looked like.
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And that should let us
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get back on track with our
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rest of our flight experiments.
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And what does that mean
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for first flight?
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I think it means that we'll
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be done with the
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commissioning if the
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results from this all look
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good and we'll then be
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really be ready to take off
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on that first flight
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So it's good progress
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to have and we're looking
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forward to being in the
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flying phase and getting past
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the commissioning phase.
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That's good to hear Bob.
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Now Ken, there's another
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technology demonstration
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gearing up on Perseverance
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can you tell us about MOXIE
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and what it plans to do?
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Sure.
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MOXIE is part of Perseverance's
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technology demonstration
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payload, as is the helicopter.
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And MOXIE is a small device
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that will convert the carbon
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dioxide of the Martian
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atmosphere into oxygen
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as a demonstration of this
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capability for future missions
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that might bring astronauts
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to Mars who would benefit
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greatly by not having to
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bring oxygen with them.
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So MOXIE is a demonstration
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that this capability will
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actually work on Mars.
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And we're very excited
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as part of the early parts of
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this mission to be testing
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out our new technologies
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and we expect that the
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first run of the MOXIE
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investigation will be within
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the next couple of weeks.
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Great. And what science
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has Perseverance been working
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on over the last week or so?
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We have been studying rocks as
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we have been investigating the
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area where the helicopter is
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going to fly.
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And as we drove out to our
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observation point where we can
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watch the helicopter at a safe
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distance, we have been exploring
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the rocks that are up close to
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the rover, trying to understand
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whether they are volcanic rocks
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or sedimentary rocks.
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Were they produced by a volcano
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or were they deposited by water?
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Thank you. Thank you Ken
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and thank you Bob.
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To get the latest,
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follow @NASAJPL
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and @NASAPersevere
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on social media for the
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latest updates.
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Take a deeper dive on the
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mission's website,
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mars.nasa.gov/perseverance
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where you can also find all the
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raw images being sent back by
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the rover, and go to
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go.nasa.gov/ingenuity for the
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latest updates on the helicopter
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Thanks for watching.
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