Ingenuity enters operations demonstration phase as Perseverance team marks initial science returns
Nearly three months after landing on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance mission is marking its initial science returns from the Martian surface as the Ingenuity helicopter enters its new phase of operational demonstration flights on the Red Planet.
Ingenuity’s flight will gather information on the surrounding Martian terrain for the mission’s teams to identify science targets for the mobile laboratory.
Ingenuity into new phase
The history-making helicopter known as Ingenuity has now begun a new series of operations on Mars, setting yet another altitude flight record on the Red Planet.
On 7 May, Ingenuity completed its fifth flight, a 129 meter journey south of Wright Brothers Field. After translating to its new location, the craft climbed to 10 meters altitude — a new record — to capture images of the surrounding area.
The flight lasted 108 seconds, commencing at 19:26 UTC / 12:33 local time at Jezero Crater, Mars.
Ingenuity crossed millions of kilometers of space and was lowered to the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover, which relays results from Ingenuity back to Earth and transmits instructions from Earth to Ingenuity.
Ingenuity, seen after landing on 7 May by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z imager. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)
The rotorcraft made the first powered, controlled flight by a heavier-than-air flying machine on another planet on 19 April 2021, almost 117 years after the Wright Brothers made their history-making flight on Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina.
During its first flight, the 1.8 kilogram Ingenuity ascended to 3 meters, hovered, rotated, and then landed safely.
The rotorcraft’s first flight lasted 39.1 seconds, as compared to the Wright Flyer’s 12 second flight. As a nod to the Wright Brothers, JPL incorporated a small piece of the Wright Flyer’s actual fabric into Ingenuity itself.
That piece of fabric has now been involved with the first powered, controlled flight on two planets. Moreover, the “airfield” where Ingenuity first flew, next to the Van Zyl Overlook where Perseverance was parked, was named Wright Brothers Field.
On Ingenuity’s second flight on 22 April, the electric helicopter rose vertically to 5 meters, flew laterally for 2 meters, made three turns, stayed airborne for 51.6 seconds, and then landed. A few days later, Ingenuity took flight for the third time on 25 April.
The rotorcraft rose vertically to 5 meters, flew laterally for 50 meters, achieved an airspeed of 2 m/s, and landed safely.
The fourth flight featured a climb to 5 meters and a flight south for 133 meters and then back for a 266 meter round trip. The flight lasted 117 seconds and captured numerous photographs for aerial surveillance of the surrounding landscape.
While designed to provide 350 watts for a 90 second flight, Ingenuity’s power system has performed better than expected, along with its other systems.
An aspect of Ingenuity’s better than expected performance is its rotors’ ability to shake the ever-present Martian dust off of the craft’s solar panels during flight. This ability to keep dust off of the solar panels not only extends Ingenuity’s mission, but could also provide data on future solar panel designs that need to function on the Red Planet.
With its fifth flight complete, Ingenuity is now at a location known as Airfield B.
“The plan forward is to fly Ingenuity in a manner that does not reduce the pace of Perseverance science operations,” said Balaram. “We may get a couple more flights in over the next few weeks, and then the agency will evaluate how we’re doing.”
“We have already been able to gather all the flight performance data that we originally came here to collect. Now, this new operations demo gives us an opportunity to further expand our knowledge of flying machines on other planets.”
Perseverance
While Ingenuity has been busy with its flight program, Perseverance has also stayed busy when not needed as a communications platform for the rotorcraft.
The rover has not only continued system checkouts, but also begun initial science operations and important technology demonstrations applicable to future Mars missions.
One of the largest successes so far is the MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment. MOXIE is designed to test the process of converting Martian air (96% carbon dioxide) into oxygen for use by astronauts or as fuel for rockets.
The MOXIE unit is a 17.1 kilogram box mounted to the front right side of Perseverance. It is about the size of a car battery but is designed to withstand temperatures of 800℃ inherent with the process that converts carbon dioxide to oxygen and carbon monoxide, which will be expelled into the Martian air.
Its gold coating also protects Perseverance from damaging heat that might otherwise threaten the other instruments and the rover.
MOXIE will be run at least nine more times over the next Martian year (two Earth years), and will be tested under different conditions, including time of day and temperature, as it works to produce up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour.
The data gathered will inform the design and operation of larger units that will have to process Martian air and regolith into products such as breathable air, water, and rocket fuel for future missions.
Future oxygen-generating devices will need to be up to one ton in mass to produce much larger quantities of oxygen, most of which would become liquid oxidizer for future rockets that plan to launch from the Martian surface.
With the primary science phase of Perseverance’s mission beginning in earnest, the rover will now bring its science instruments to bear on the region where it currently resides.
The area near the landing site is believed to contain mudstones from the middle of Jezero Crater’s ancient lake. The first surface samples will be taken from Perseverance’s current general location before the rover departs.
Overall, Perseverance will trek toward the ancient river delta in Jezero Crater, traversing different geologic terrain and gathering data to help decode Martian geological history as well as its ancient habitability.
Quelle: NS
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Update: 17.05.2021
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Seeing NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Fly in 3D
After the zoomable dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the third flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter on April 25, 2021, Justin Maki, an imaging scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, led the team that stitched the images into a video. The frames of the video were then reprojected to optimize viewing in an anaglyph, or an image seen in 3D when viewed with color-filtered glasses.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
A new video gives viewers the sensation of standing on the Red Planet and seeing the action firsthand.
When NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took to the Martian skies on its third flight on April 25, the agency’s Perseverance rover was there to capture the historic moment. Now NASA engineers have rendered the flight in 3D, lending dramatic depth to the flight as the helicopter ascends, hovers, then zooms laterally off-screen before returning for a pinpoint landing. Seeing the sequence is a bit like standing on the Martian surface next to Perseverance and watching the flight firsthand.
Located on the rover’s mast, or “head,” the zoomable dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager provided the view. Along with producing images that enable the public to follow the rover’s daily discoveries, the cameras provide key data to help engineers navigate and scientists choose interesting rocks to study.
Justin Maki, an imaging scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, led the team that stitched the images into a video. The frames of the video were reprojected to optimize viewing in an anaglyph, or an image seen in 3D when viewed with color-filtered glasses (you can create your own 3D glasses in a few minutes).
Maki’s been creating 3D imaging of Mars since his days as a graduate student processing images from NASA’s Sojourner, the first Mars rover in 1997. But this is the first time he’s created actual 3D video of an aircraft flying on Mars. “The Mastcam-Z video capability was inherited from the Mars Science Laboratory MARDI (MArs Descent Imager) camera,” Maki said. “To be reusing this capability on a new mission by acquiring 3D video of a helicopter flying above the surface of Mars is just spectacular.” The videos of the helicopter are the most extensive 3D video yet from the Mastcam-Z team.
The rover’s drivers and robotic-arm operators use a more sophisticated 3D system to understand exactly how things are positioned on Mars before planning the rover’s movements. But, according to Maki, team members have also been viewing still 3D images for rover-drive planning. “A helicopter flying on Mars opens a new era for Mars exploration. It’s a great demonstration of a new technology for exploration,” he added. “With each flight we open up more possibilities.”
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter takes off and lands in this video captured on April 25, 2021, by Mastcam-Z, an imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. As expected, the helicopter flew out of its field of vision while completing a flight plan that took it 164 feet (50 meters) downrange of the landing spot. Keep watching, the helicopter will return to stick the landing.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The April 25 flight brought with it several other firsts, with Ingenuity rising 16 feet (5 meters), then flying downrange 164 feet (50 meters). That was a record until Ingenuity traveled 873 feet (266 meters) on its fourth flight, on April 30. For its fifth flight, on May 7, Ingenuity completed its first one-way trip, traveling 423 feet (129 meters), then reaching an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) above its new landing field.
The flights began as a technology demonstration intended to prove that powered, controlled flight on Mars is possible. Now they will serve as an operations demonstration, exploring how aerial scouting and other functions could benefit future exploration of Mars.
More About Perseverance
Arizona State University in Tempe leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed 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, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 23.05.2021
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Plans Underway for Ingenuity’s Sixth Flight
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took this color image from an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) during its fifth flight on May 7, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›
Plans are underway for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to make its sixth flight on the Red Planet in the next week. The flight is the first to be executed during the helicopter’s operations demonstration phase and includes scouting multiple surface features from the air and landing at a different airfield. In this new phase, data and images from the flight will be returned to Earth in the days following the flight. The Perseverance rover will not record images of the helicopter in flight, as it is preparing for the start of the mission’s science operations.
Ingenuity’s flight plan begins with the helicopter ascending to 33 feet (10 meters), then heading southwest for about 492 feet (150 meters). When it achieves that distance, the rotorcraft will begin acquiring color imagery of an area of interest as it translates to the south about 50-66 feet (15-20 meters). Stereo imagery of the sand ripples and outcrops of bright rocks at the site will help demonstrate the value of an aerial perspective for future missions. After completing its image collection, Ingenuity will fly about 164 feet (50 meters) northeast where it will touch down at its new base of operations (known as "Field C").
Ingenuity is planning to continue to expand its performance envelope during Flight Six. The top groundspeed Ingenuity is expected to achieve on this flight is 9 mph (4 meters per second) and the time aloft will be around 140 seconds. It is also the first time the helicopter will land at an airfield which it did not survey from the air during a previous mission. Instead, the Ingenuity team is relying on imagery collected by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that suggests this new base of operations is relatively flat and has few surface obstructions.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 28.05.2021
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Mars-Hubschrauber war kurzzeitig außer Kontrolle
Bei seinem fünften Flug ist der Mars-Hubschrauber „Ingenuity“ - wie erst jetzt bekannt wurde - kurzeitig außer Kontrolle geraten. Schuld daran war laut Angaben der US-Raumfahrtbehörde NASA ein Navigationsfehler, der den Mini-Helikopter auf einen wilden Schlingerkurs schickte. Doch die NASA gibt Entwarnung: Das Fluggerät konnte sicher landen, allerdings ein paar Meter abseits des geplanten Landeplatzes.
„Ingenuity“ landete nach seinem fünften Flug rund 130 Meter weiter südlich wieder auf dem Roten Planeten. Bei seinem fünften Abheben habe der Mini-Hubschrauber eine Rekord-Flughöhe von rund zehn Metern erreicht, wie die NASA am Freitag vor einer Woche mitteilte. Damals hatte sie auch eine erste Ton-Aufnahme vom vierten Flug von „Ingenuity“ veröffentlicht.
Schlingerkurs nach Problem mit Navigation Bei seinem bislang letzten Flug am 22. Mai geriet der Hubschrauber nach etwa einer Minute in etwa zehn Metern Höhe kurzzeitig außer Kontrolle. Der Grund für den wilden Schlingerkurs: Bilder, die von einer Onboard-Kamera aufgenommen werden, wurde nicht im Navigationssystem von „Ingenuity“ registriert, wodurch der Zeitablauf durcheinander geriet. Von da an reagierte der Helikopter kurzzeitig auf falsche Informationen, so die NASA.
Erstes Luftfahrzeug auf fremdem Planet „Ingenuity“ war am 19. April zum ersten Mal abgehoben - und hatte damit als erstes Luftfahrzeug einen Flug auf einem anderen Planeten absolviert. Seitdem ist der Hubschrauber bereits vier weitere Male geflogen. Seine ursprünglich auf rund 30 Tage angelegte Mission ist zunächst um rund 30 Tage verlängert worden.
Wegen der dünnen Atmosphäre, die nur rund ein Prozent der Dichte von jener der Erde hat, müssen die Rotoren zudem auf 2537 Umdrehungen pro Minute beschleunigen - ein Vielfaches dessen, was Hubschrauber auf der Erde erreichen. Die Energie für diese Kraftanstrengung zieht „Ingenuity“ aus seiner durch Sonnenstrahlen gespeisten Batterie.
Quelle: Krone.at
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INGENUITY PERSEVERES THROUGH STRESSFUL SIXTH FLIGHT
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter took to the Martian skies for a sixth time, but the flight turned out to be much more stressful that its previous outings. An error in the navigation system caused the tiny craft to twist and turn unexpectedly, but in the end made a successful landing.
What happened to Ingenuity on this sixth flight is another testament to the word.
Ingenuity was only designed to fly five times on Mars, but after acing those missions, NASA gave it an operational assignment working in conjunction with the rover.
Its first flight in this new role took place on May 22, but NASA only posted a description of what happened today.
Previously, Ingenuity’s highest altitude was 5 meters (16 feet). This time, it was commanded to rise to 10 meters (33 feet), move 150 meters (492 feet) to the southwest at 4 meters per second (9 miles per hour), then move 15 meters (49 feet) to the south, then 50 meters (164 feet) northeast and land.
Image of Mars taken by Ingenuity helicopter from altitude of 10 meters, May 22, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The first 150 meter leg went fine, but then Ingenuity began oscillating.
The good news is it landed safely.
Ingenuity’s chief pilot, Håvard Grip, explained that during flight, Ingenuity is guided not only by an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), but by comparing images of what it should be seeing with what it actually is seeing through its navigation camera that collects 30 images per second and feeds them to the helicopter’s navigation system.
This time, for some reason, a “glitch occurred in the pipeline of images” and an image was lost. That meant subsequent images had incorrect time stamps and the navigation system operated on incorrect information.
“The resulting inconsistencies significantly degraded the information used to fly the helicopter, leading to estimates being constantly ‘corrected’ to account for phantom errors. Large oscillations ensued.”
Fortunately, Ingenuity does not use those images during the final phase of descent so it stopped oscillating and landed safely.
Grip wrote: “While we did not intentionally plan such a stressful flight, NASA now has flight data probing the outer reaches of the helicopter’s performance envelope. That data will be carefully analyzed in the time ahead, expanding our reservoir of knowledge about flying helicopters on Mars.”
Ingenuity, Perseverance, and other Mars spacecraft must operate autonomously because of the time-lag in communications between Earth and the Red Planet, which is about 11 minutes round-trip. The spacecraft are sent commands to perform certain operations, but ground controllers do not know how everything turned out until after it is all over.
Quelle: Space and Technology Policy Group
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Update: 2.06.2021
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Mars: Nasa's Perseverance rover's first 100 days in pictures
Nasa's Perseverance rover is celebrating 100 Martian days (sols) since landing on Mars, where it is hunting for signs of past microbial life, and seeking to investigate the planet's geology and past climate.
Since touching down on 18 February, the robot has captured some amazing images from around its landing site, Jezero Crater, a 49km (30 mile) wide impact depression just north of the Red Planet's equator.
A small helicopter, Ingenuity, has also returned aerial images, having made history with the first powered, controlled flights on another planet.
Here is a selection of pictures sent back from the mission so far.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
image captionOn 6 April, Perseverance used the Watson (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera to take this selfie next to the Ingenuity helicopter. This photo is made up of 62 individual images which were stitched together once they were sent back to Earth.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
image captionDays earlier, Ingenuity had been deployed from underneath the rover.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU
image captionThe 1.8kg (4lb) helicopter is regarded as a technology demonstration for the potential of aerial mobility in the thin Martian atmosphere.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH
image captionOn 19 April, Ingenuity made history with the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The chopper, which is visible near the centre of this image, rose to about 3m (10ft) above ground and hovered for several seconds, before touching back down.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH
image captionIngenuity captured its first colour aerial image while on its second flight. The drone hovered about 5m (16ft) above the ground, tilted and moved laterally 2m (6ft), before returning to the spot it took off from. Perseverance's tracks and Ingenuity's shadow are visible on the Martian surface below.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH
image captionIngenuity photographed Perseverance while on its third flight. At the time, the mini-helicopter was about 85m (278ft) from the rover and flying laterally at an altitude of 5m (16ft). One of Ingenuity's feet is also visible at the edge of the image, just below the rover.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH
image captionOn 7 May, Ingenuity reached a height of 10m (33ft), before flying 129m (423ft) to a new landing spot.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH
image captionTwo months earlier, Perseverance went for its first drive since it landed in Jezero Crater. The one-tonne rover is carrying an advanced payload of instruments to gather information about Mars' geology, atmosphere and environmental conditions.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU
image captionPerseverance is equipped with a laser that is designed to help it collect data on the planet's geology. While investigating this 15cm (6in) rock, the instrument left the faint row of dots that is visible near its centre.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU
image captionThe rover is also equipped with a variety of different cameras. This image was taken by the "right eye" of Perseverance's Mastcam-Z, one of a pair of cameras that provide a stereo view similar to what human eyes would see.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU
image captionThis image was taken with the left Mastcam-Z camera and was selected by public vote to be featured as "Image of the Week" for Week 6 of the rover's mission.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTNASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU/MSSS
image captionThis image shows Santa Cruz, a hill about 1.5 miles (2.5km) away from the rover. The entire scene is inside Mars' Jezero Crater; the crater's rim can be seen on the horizon line beyond the hill.
