19.02.2021
Touchdown! NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on Red Planet
Editor's note: This release was updated shortly after issuing to update the quotes following landing.
The largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world touched down on Mars Thursday, after a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles (472 million kilometers). Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST).
Packed with groundbreaking technology, the Mars 2020 mission launched July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Perseverance rover mission marks an ambitious first step in the effort to collect Mars samples and return them to Earth.
“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.”
About the size of a car, the 2,263-pound (1,026-kilogram) robotic geologist and astrobiologist will undergo several weeks of testing before it begins its two-year science investigation of Mars’ Jezero Crater. While the rover will investigate the rock and sediment of Jezero’s ancient lakebed and river delta to characterize the region’s geology and past climate, a fundamental part of its mission is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. To that end, the Mars Sample Return campaign, being planned by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), will allow scientists on Earth to study samples collected by Perseverance to search for definitive signs of past life using instruments too large and complex to send to the Red Planet.
“Because of today’s exciting events, the first pristine samples from carefully documented locations on another planet are another step closer to being returned to Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA. “Perseverance is the first step in bringing back rock and regolith from Mars. We don’t know what these pristine samples from Mars will tell us. But what they could tell us is monumental – including that life might have once existed beyond Earth.”
Some 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, Jezero Crater sits on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator. Scientists have determined that 3.5 billion years ago the crater had its own river delta and was filled with water.
The power system that provides electricity and heat for Perseverance through its exploration of Jezero Crater is a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided it to NASA through an ongoing partnership to develop power systems for civil space applications.
Equipped with seven primary science instruments, the most cameras ever sent to Mars, and its exquisitely complex sample caching system – the first of its kind sent into space – Perseverance will scour the Jezero region for fossilized remains of ancient microscopic Martian life, taking samples along the way.
“Perseverance is the most sophisticated robotic geologist ever made, but verifying that microscopic life once existed carries an enormous burden of proof,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division. “While we’ll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more capable laboratories and instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples carry evidence that Mars once harbored life.”
Paving the Way for Human Missions
“Landing on Mars is always an incredibly difficult task and we are proud to continue building on our past success,” said JPL Director Michael Watkins. “But, while Perseverance advances that success, this rover is also blazing its own path and daring new challenges in the surface mission. We built the rover not just to land but to find and collect the best scientific samples for return to Earth, and its incredibly complex sampling system and autonomy not only enable that mission, they set the stage for future robotic and crewed missions.”
The Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) sensor suite collected data about Mars’ atmosphere during entry, and the Terrain-Relative Navigation system autonomously guided the spacecraft during final descent. The data from both are expected to help future human missions land on other worlds more safely and with larger payloads.
On the surface of Mars, Perseverance’s science instruments will have an opportunity to scientifically shine. Mastcam-Z is a pair of zoomable science cameras on Perseverance’s remote sensing mast, or head, that creates high-resolution, color 3D panoramas of the Martian landscape. Also located on the mast, the SuperCam uses a pulsed laser to study the chemistry of rocks and sediment and has its own microphone to help scientists better understand the property of the rocks, including their hardness.
Located on a turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) and the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instruments will work together to collect data on Mars’ geology close-up. PIXL will use an X-ray beam and suite of sensors to delve into a rock’s elemental chemistry. SHERLOC’s ultraviolet laser and spectrometer, along with its Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) imager, will study rock surfaces, mapping out the presence of certain minerals and organic molecules, which are the carbon-based building blocks of life on Earth.
The rover chassis is home to three science instruments, as well. The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) is the first ground-penetrating radar on the surface of Mars and will be used to determine how different layers of the Martian surface formed over time. The data could help pave the way for future sensors that hunt for subsurface water ice deposits.
Also with an eye on future Red Planet explorations, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) technology demonstration will attempt to manufacture oxygen out of thin air – the Red Planet’s tenuous and mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere. The rover’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument, which has sensors on the mast and chassis, will provide key information about present-day Mars weather, climate, and dust.
Currently attached to the belly of Perseverance, the diminutive Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
Project engineers and scientists will now put Perseverance through its paces, testing every instrument, subsystem, and subroutine over the next month or two. Only then will they deploy the helicopter to the surface for the flight test phase. If successful, Ingenuity could add an aerial dimension to exploration of the Red Planet in which such helicopters serve as a scouts or make deliveries for future astronauts away from their base.
Once Ingenuity’s test flights are complete, the rover’s search for evidence of ancient microbial life will begin in earnest.
“Perseverance is more than a rover, and more than this amazing collection of men and women that built it and got us here,” said John McNamee, project manager of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at JPL. “It is even more than the 10.9 million people who signed up to be part of our mission. This mission is about what humans can achieve when they persevere. We made it this far. Now, watch us go.”
More About the Mission
A primary objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration for NASA.
Quelle: NASA
+++
After dramatic approach, NASA's Perseverance rover lands safely on Mars
After a nearly 300 million-mile journey that began on a Florida launch pad, NASA’s newest robotic explorer has officially – and safely – landed on Mars.
The agency’s Perseverance rover touched down on the red planet at 3:55 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, bringing an end to the “seven minutes of terror” that saw a fiery atmospheric entry and parachute-assisted descent. The landing mechanism then fired eight retrorockets to slow down and guide it to a proper landing spot before using nylon cords to lower the 2,200-pound rover to the surface.
All told, the entry and final "sky crane maneuver" successfully decelerated Perseverance from thousands of miles an hour to just 1.7 mph at touchdown. And due to an 11-minute delay in transmissions from Earth to Mars, the rover did it all on its own – no human input was possible.
Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California quickly received data from Mars satellites and the rover itself confirming a good touchdown, including the first images from Perseverance: scenes of a desolate, dusty landscape that looks dangerous to humans, but full of potential for this scientist-explorer.
"We got it. We're there," JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning, who has worked on Mars landings for decades, said after landing. "This is so exciting and the team is beside themselves. This is so surreal. So much has been riding on this."
Just minutes after the landing, Perseverance continued sending image after image from its hazard-detecting navigational cameras. Manning also confirmed teams knew exactly where the rover landed well ahead of schedule.
"This is a sign that NASA works," Manning said. "When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does and this is what we can do as a country."
The red planet's newcomer now finds itself in Jezero Crater, a region of Mars once believed to harbor a massive lake fed by rivers of running water. The regolith and rocks here will be prime targets for Perseverance's suite of instruments designed to hunt for past or present signs of life.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said Perseverance is the agency's "robotic astrobiologist" and the first with the "explicit goal of searching for signs of ancient life."
Journey completed: After 300 million miles, NASA's Perseverance rover set for Mars touchdown
Meet 'Percy'
Nicknamed "Percy" by her California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission managers, she isn't the first rover on Mars – the U.S. and other countries have been targeting the red planet for decades.
Perseverance is, however, the most advanced, fastest, and will likely survive longer than its predecessors in this harsh, dusty environment. Unlike older missions that relied on solar power, for example, Perseverance runs on nuclear power. This is especially important on a planet where massive, global dust storms can render solar panels useless.
NASA expects the surface mission to last about one Martian year, or two Earth years.
Nearly identical though slightly larger than its 2012 Curiosity predecessor, the rover has several suites of onboard instruments that will be used to find, analyze, and store rock samples. A drill on the end of its "arm" is designed to grab core samples, while systems that use X-rays and ultraviolet spectrometers can conduct scientific investigations right there on the surface.
There's some forward-thinking, too: Perseverance can not only store its core samples in tubes and put those in its "body," but it can later remove and scatter them around the surface of Jezero Crater for a yet-to-be-scheduled mission to recover them and bring them back to Earth. Though "Percy" is no slouch with its onboard instruments, scientists hope to use their own tools and equipment on samples obtained directly from Mars.
Touchdown: For Mars rover workers, years of work comes down to a few nail-biting moments
Fly your own rover: Skip the trip and land the Mars rover from your own house! There's an (AR) app for that.
"It really is the beginning of a new era, in the sense that we're going from exploration – experiments on rovers, looking around, doing analysis – to the sample return phase," Zurbuchen said Thursday. "We're not only looking around and looking at the geology, but really turning our rover into a robotic geologist and astrobiologist."
Manasvi Lingam, a professor of astrobiology, aerospace, physics, and space sciences at Florida Tech, said bringing samples back to Earth has two advantages for scientists: instruments on Earth vastly outclass what’s available on Perseverance; and having a human eye looking at samples is still preferred.
“Any sign of life will of course be one of the most momentous discoveries in the entire history of humanity,” Lingam said. “Even if it is extinct life, just knowing that there was something out there is certainly Nobel Prize-level.”
But NASA's latest rover isn't alone in Jezero Crater. A small, four-pound helicopter named Ingenuity hitched a ride down to the surface on its "belly."
Ingenuity's mission is simple and unrelated to the larger science objectives: conduct the first-ever flight on another world. To accomplish this in an atmosphere just 1% as dense as Earth's, NASA had to build a small vehicle with large carbon fiber blades and make it light enough to lift off.
Using two cameras, the small helicopter will attempt the first test flights over a yet-to-be-determined 30-day period. Ingenuity could offer robotic and human explorers of the future a critical high-level view of the planet.
The journey to Mars
Perseverance began its journey to Mars in July 2020 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, which vaulted the payload on a complicated trajectory from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
"Ours or our heritage rockets have done every U.S. mission to Mars, so it's something that's really special to us," Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, told FLORIDA TODAY. "We're really excited and honored to be trusted with a mission like this to Mars."
Bruno said all missions are important, but science-focused ones like Perseverance have a special place in his company, which is focused on its next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket for flights of all types.
"The missions we launch are always important," Bruno said. "This is some group of people's life's work. The research they have done leading up to this and the work on the spacecraft itself is a career all alone."
"If you lose that spacecraft or you don't deliver it the way it needs to be delivered in order for it to do its mission, sometimes there's no recovering from that. Their whole career culminated in this mission and they don't have a second career to do another one," Bruno said.
"We take that very, very seriously."
Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support space journalism by subscribing at floridatoday.com/specialoffer/.
By the numbers: NASA's Perseverance rover
> Length: 10 feet (17 feet with drill-arm extended)
> Width: 9 feet
> Height: 7 feet
> Weight: 2,260 pounds
> Top speed: 0.1 mph
> Power source: U.S. government-provided nuclear decay "battery"
> Distance traveled to Mars: 293 million miles over six months
> Equipment: Cameras, radar sensors, "arm" with a drill, scientific analysis instruments, capsules to store samples, Ingenuity helicopter attached to "belly"
Quelle: Florida Today
+++
Quelle: NASA
+++
NASA's Perseverance Rover Sends Sneak Peek of Mars Landing
High-Resolution Still Image of Perseverance’s Landing: This is a high-resolution still image, part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars. A camera aboard the descent stage captured this shot. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The six-wheeled robot’s latest data since touching down yesterday include a series of images captured as the rover’s “jet pack” lowered it to the ground.
Less than a day after NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars, engineers and scientists at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were hard at work, awaiting the next transmissions from Perseverance. As data gradually came in, relayed by several spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, the Perseverance team were relieved to see the rover’s health reports, which showed everything appeared to be working as expected.
Adding to the excitement was a high-resolution image taken during the rover’s landing. While NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover sent back a stop-motion movie of its descent, Perseverance’s cameras are intended to capture video of its touchdown and this new still image was taken from that footage, which is still being relayed to Earth and processed.
Unlike with past rovers, the majority of Perseverance’s cameras capture images in color. After landing, two of the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) captured views from the front and rear of the rover, showing one of its wheels in the Martian dirt. Perseverance got a close-up from NASA’s eye in the sky, as well: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance. Orbiter, which used a special high-resolution camera to capture the spacecraft sailing into Jezero Crater, with its parachute trailing behind. The High Resolution Camera Experiment (HiRISE) camera did the same for Curiosity in 2012. JPL leads the orbiter’s mission, while the HiRISE instrument is led by the University of Arizona.
Several pyrotechnic charges are expected to fire later on Friday, releasing Perseverance’s mast (the “head” of the rover) from where it is fixed on the rover’s deck. The Navigation Cameras (Navcams), which are used for driving, share space on the mast with two science cameras: the zoomable Mastcam-Z and a laser instrument called SuperCam. The mast is scheduled to be raised Saturday, Feb. 20, after which the Navcams are expected to take panoramas of the rover’s deck and its surroundings.
In the days to come, engineers will pore over the rover’s system data, updating its software and beginning to test its various instruments. In the following weeks, Perseverance will test its robotic arm and take its first, short drive. It will be at least one or two months until Perseverance will find a flat location to drop off Ingenuity, the mini-helicopter attached to the rover’s belly, and even longer before it finally hits the road, beginning its science mission and searching for its first sample of Martian rock and sediment.
More About the Mission
A primary objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration for NASA.
Quelle: NASA
----
Update: 21.02.2021
.
NASA’s Mars Helicopter Reports In
In this illustration, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter stands on the Red Planet's surface as NASA's Perseverance rover (partially visible on the left) rolls away.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The technology demonstration has phoned home from where it is attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover.
Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have received the first status report from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which landed Feb. 18, 2021, at Jezero Crater attached to the belly of the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The downlink, which arrived at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST) via a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, indicates that both the helicopter, which will remain attached to the rover for 30 to 60 days, and its base station (an electrical box on the rover that stores and routes communications between the rotorcraft and Earth) are operating as expected.
“There are two big-ticket items we are looking for in the data: the state of charge of Ingenuity’s batteries as well as confirmation the base station is operating as designed, commanding heaters to turn off and on to keep the helicopter’s electronics within an expected range,” said Tim Canham, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter operations lead at JPL. “Both appear to be working great. With this positive report, we will move forward with tomorrow’s charge of the helicopter’s batteries.”
Ensuring that Ingenuity has plenty of stored energy aboard to maintain heating and other vital functions while also maintaining optimal battery health is essential to the success of the Mars Helicopter. The one-hour power-up will boost the rotorcraft’s batteries to about 30% of its total capacity. A few days after that, they’ll be charged again to reach 35%, with future charging sessions planned weekly while the helicopter is attached to the rover. The data downlinked during tomorrow’s charge sessions will be compared to battery-charging sessions done during cruise to Mars to help the team plan future charging sessions.
Like much of the 4-pound (2-kilogram) rotorcraft, the six lithium-ion batteries are off-the-shelf. They currently receive recharges from the rover’s power supply. Once Ingenuity is deployed to Mars’ surface, the helicopter’s batteries will be charged solely by its own solar panel.
After Perseverance deploys Ingenuity to the surface, the helicopter will then have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight test window. If Ingenuity survives its first bone-chilling Martian nights – where temperatures dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) – the team will proceed with the first flight of an aircraft on another world.
If Ingenuity succeeds in taking off and hovering during its first flight, over 90% of the project’s goals will have been achieved. If the rotorcraft lands successfully and remains operable, up to four more flights could be attempted, each one building on the success of the last.
“We are in uncharted territory, but this team is used to that,” said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL. “Just about every milestone from here through the end of our flight demonstration program will be a first, and each has to succeed for us to go on to the next. We’ll enjoy this good news for the moment, but then we have to get back to work.”
Next-generation rotorcraft, the descendants of Ingenuity, could add an aerial dimension to future exploration of the Red Planet. These advanced robotic flying vehicles would offer a unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters high overhead or by rovers and landers on the ground, providing high-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans, and enable access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach.
More About Ingenuity
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California which also manages the technology demonstration for NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA’s Ames and Langley Research Centers provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, Snapdragon, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. The Mars Helicopter Delivery System was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Space Systems in Denver.
Quelle: NASA
----
Update: 23.02.2021
.
NASA to Reveal New Video, Images from Mars Perseverance Rover
NASA will hold a virtual briefing at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) today to unveil the “How to Land on Mars” video, which will present first-of-its-kind footage the Perseverance rover captured as it touched down on the Red Planet Feb. 18. The agency also will show new images the rover took on the Martian surface.
The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website and stream live on multiple agency social media platforms.
Discussing the footage and the mission will be:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
- Michael Watkins, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- Matt Wallace, Perseverance deputy project manager, JPL
- Al Chen, Perseverance entry, descent, and landing lead, JPL
- Dave Gruel, Perseverance EDL camera lead, JPL
- Justin Maki, Perseverance imaging scientist and instrument operations team chief, JPL
- Jessica Samuels, Perseverance surface mission manager, JPL
- Ken Williford, Perseverance deputy project scientist, JPL
The teleconference number used for media briefings in advance of and following Perseverance landing will be used again for the Monday briefing. To request the number, reporters must provide their name and affiliation by noon EST (9 a.m. PST) Feb. 22, to Rexana Vizza at rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov.
Media and the public also may ask questions on social media during the briefing using #CountdownToMars.
Following Monday’s briefing, at 4 p.m., NASA will host a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” in the r/IAmA community with scientists, engineers, and mission experts who will answer questions from the public about the mission and new imagery.
Quelle: NASA
+++
Mars helicopter reports in, New color images available
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Left Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Feb. 21, 2021 (Sol 2) at the local mean solar time of 15:37:01.
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have received the first status report from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which landed Feb. 18, 2021, at Jezero Crater attached to the belly of the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Also now available is a second color desktop view from the rear left hazcam.
The downlink, which arrived at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST) via a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, indicates that both the helicopter, which will remain attached to the rover for 30 to 60 days, and its base station (an electrical box on the rover that stores and routes communications between the rotorcraft and Earth) are operating as expected.
"There are two big-ticket items we are looking for in the data: the state of charge of Ingenuity's batteries as well as confirmation the base station is operating as designed, commanding heaters to turn off and on to keep the helicopter's electronics within an expected range," said Tim Canham, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter operations lead at JPL.
"Both appear to be working great. With this positive report, we will move forward with tomorrow's charge of the helicopter's batteries."
Ensuring that Ingenuity has plenty of stored energy aboard to maintain heating and other vital functions while also maintaining optimal battery health is essential to the success of the Mars Helicopter.
The one-hour power-up will boost the rotorcraft's batteries to about 30% of its total capacity. A few days after that, they'll be charged again to reach 35%, with future charging sessions planned weekly while the helicopter is attached to the rover.
The data downlinked during tomorrow's charge sessions will be compared to battery-charging sessions done during cruise to Mars to help the team plan future charging sessions.
Like much of the 4-pound (2-kilogram) rotorcraft, the six lithium-ion batteries are off-the-shelf. They currently receive recharges from the rover's power supply. Once Ingenuity is deployed to Mars' surface, the helicopter's batteries will be charged solely by its own solar panel.
After Perseverance deploys Ingenuity to the surface, the helicopter will then have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight test window. If Ingenuity survives its first bone-chilling Martian nights - where temperatures dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) - the team will proceed with the first flight of an aircraft on another world.
If Ingenuity succeeds in taking off and hovering during its first flight, over 90% of the project's goals will have been achieved. If the rotorcraft lands successfully and remains operable, up to four more flights could be attempted, each one building on the success of the last.
"We are in uncharted territory, but this team is used to that," said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL. "Just about every milestone from here through the end of our flight demonstration program will be a first, and each has to succeed for us to go on to the next. We'll enjoy this good news for the moment, but then we have to get back to work."
Next-generation rotorcraft, the descendants of Ingenuity, could add an aerial dimension to future exploration of the Red Planet. These advanced robotic flying vehicles would offer a unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters high overhead or by rovers and landers on the ground, providing high-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans, and enable access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach.
Quelle: SD