Tag: Ingenuity

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Comes Back Online on Mars After Communications Glitch

SPACE reports that Ingenuity has officially “regained communication with ground control.” According to a January 20 NASA post, Perseverance “had conducted long-duration listening sessions to help pinpoint Ingenuity’s signal.” Everything “seemed fine during the probe’s 72nd hop on Mars’ red surface, as it successfully climbed to an expected maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters) and communicated its ascension status with Perseverance.” But, during descent, NASA said that “communications between the helicopter and rover terminated early, prior to touchdown.”
Full Story (SPACE)

AIAA Statement on the End of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 31, 2024 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) CEO Dan Dumbacher made the following statement:

“We join NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the entire aerospace community in marking the end of mission for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on 25 January 2024. What a mission it was – 72 powered controlled flights on another planet.

We’ll remember the historic date and location of Ingenuity’s first flight, 19 April 2021, at Jezero Crater, Wright Brothers Field, Mars. Ingenuity’s remarkable mission of taking off-world risks proves anything is possible. Going from a flight test experiment to an operational scout is an amazing accomplishment.

AIAA was honored to present the 2021 AIAA Space Systems Award to the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team, “For the design and flight test validation of the first helicopter designed for flight at Mars.” In addition, ASCEND was honored to host the 2021 NASA JPL William H. Pickering Lecture on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

Over the years, innovators have chronicled their work on rotorcraft designed for missions on other planets and moons by authoring articles for AIAA peer-reviewed journals, books, and meeting papers for AIAA forums. Their original research results and technological progress have been published in AIAA’s Aerospace Research Central (ARC) at arc.aiaa.org, the leading source of aerospace industry archives. AIAA is committed to ensuring students and professionals have access to the most important advances in aerospace science and technology through ARC. Read more about AIAA publications on the technology and development of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at aiaa.org/ingenuitymarshelicopter.

On behalf of the 30,000 professional and student members of AIAA, we salute the whole team who made the dream of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter a reality. We admire your engineering determination in combination with your innovative and inspirational thinking.

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has shaped the future of aerospace.”

AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

 

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Achieves Longest Flight in 18 Months

SPACE reports that NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter “conducted its 63rd Mars flight on Thursday (Oct. 19), covering 1,901 feet (579 meters) of ground in the process.” That was “its longest distance since Flight 25,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. Ingenuity “flew for 2,310 feet (704 m) on Flight 25, which occurred on April 8, 2022.” This latest sortie “lasted 143 seconds, according to the mission’s flight log.” Ingenuity “got a maximum of 39 feet (12 m) above the ground and reached a top speed of about 14.1 mph (22.7 kph).”
Full Story (SPACE)

Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Makes 48th Error-Free Flight

SPACE reports that the Ingenuity helicopter “buzzed over the Martian landscape at a maximum altitude of around 39 feet (12 meters), observing potential science targets that could be studied by its robotic partner, NASA’s life-hunting Perseverance rover.” The rotorcraft “traveled at a top speed of 10.4 mph (16.7 kph) during Tuesday’s flight, which covered a horizontal distance of around 1,300 feet (400 meters) and lasted nearly 150 seconds, according to the mission’s flight log.” The helicopter became the first machine to fly in the skies of another planet in 2021, and this marked the 48th flight since then.
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA Reestablishes Contact With Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

Spaceflight Now reports, “NASA engineers are prepping the miniature Mars helicopter Ingenuity for its 53rd flight across the surface of the Red Planet after re-establishing contact following a two-month radio blackout.” The disruption “was due to a Martian hill blocking line-of-sight communications with the Perseverance rover – which acts as a conduit between the helicopter and ground controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

NASA Refining Designs of Mars Helicopters

SPACE reports that NASA is drawing on experience from the Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s nearly 50 flights in designing the two Mars Sample Recovery Helicopters for the Mars Sample Return campaign. At the American Astronautical Society Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Chief Engineer of Autonomy and Aerial Flight Håvard Fjær Grip “outlined plans for how Ingenuity’s guidance, navigation, and control system would be adapted and extended.” In an interview afterwards, he said, “What’s fairly clear is that the fundamental rotorcraft configuration and how we control it has been worked out and is heritage that can be relied upon.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Breaks Speed, Altitude Records

CBS News reports on Sunday, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter based on Mars flew 14.5 miles per hours at an altitude of 52.5 feet, both of which are records that broke the previous highs of 13.4 miles per hour and 46 feet of altitude, respectively. Ingenuity was brought “to Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover,” and in the past two years, the helicopter “has performed a series of tests and is currently conducting an operations demonstration phase that NASA says ‘looks to explore how future rovers and aerial explorers can work together.’”
Full Story (CBS News)

NASA: Pair of Ingenuity-Inspired Helicopters Will be Part of Mars Sample Return Mission

CNET News reports that NASA said Wednesday a pair of rotorcraft inspired by the Ingenuity helicopter “will be a key component of a mission to bring pristine Martian rock samples from the Jezero Crater to Earth.” The Mars Sample Return project “was going to involve a rover that could fetch the samples but would’ve required its own lander. The change to helicopters was made during the conceptual design phase of the mission.” NASA’s Perseverance rover is “gathering up small samples of Mars rocks and stashing them in tubes for safekeeping. The Mars Sample Return mission, or MSR, is a complex and ambitious project that’ll involve landing on Mars, picking up the tubes, rocketing them off the planet and delivering them to a spacecraft in orbit. NASA is working with the European Space Agency on the program.”
Full Story (CNET News)

Ingenuity Helicopter Prepares for 14th Flight

SPACE reports that NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter “is getting ready for its 14th Red Planet flight, but the thinning Martian air is making such sorties more and more challenging.” The Ingenuity helicopter will test “higher rotor spin speeds to see if it can keep flying in rapidly changing seasonal atmospheric conditions on Mars.” The test flight “is expected to include a rotor speed of roughly 2,700 revolutions per minute (RPM), assuming that a planned ground test of a 2,800 RPM spin goes to plan.”
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA Ingenuity to be First Aircraft to Fly on Mars

Aviation Today reports that NASA’s Ingenuity “will be the first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet.” Ingenuity will attempt test flights on Mars in the spring and will “remain within a 0.6-mile (1-kilometer) radius of Perseverance so it can communicate wirelessly with the rover.” The Perseverance rover will communicate with relay orbiters around Mars to send the signal back to Earth.
Full Story (Aviation Today)

NASA Delays First Flight of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to No Earlier Than April 11

SPACE reports that NASA has pushed the earliest date for its Ingenuity helicopter to make its first flight on Mars from April 8 to April 11. NASA’s JPL said in a tweet that Ingenuity “is preparing to do something that’s never been done: controlled, powered flight on another planet. Takeoff is now slated for no earlier than April 11, with data arriving on Earth on April 12.” The helicopter, “located underneath the rover, has been unfurling from Perseverance’s belly, preparing for the” flight. On March 21, the Perseverance rover “dropped a protective shield, which helped the helicopter to endure the perilous descent through Mars’ atmosphere.”
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Begins Deployment Phase

Spaceflight Now reports that NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter “is being lowered from the belly of the Perseverance rover this week as ground teams run through a choreographed long-distance command sequence to safely release the $80 million rotorcraft onto the surface of Mars.” The deployment “is projected to take around six days, assuming everything goes as planned. The first command uplinked from engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was to release a launch lock that kept the Ingenuity helicopter firmly attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover during the journey to Mars.” The deployment “sequence continued Tuesday to extend the helicopter’s other two landing legs. At that point, the helicopter remained attached to the rover by a single bolt and a couple of tiny electrical connectors, according to NASA.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to Fly No Earlier than April 8

The Hill reports that the NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will take its first flight no earlier than April 8. The helicopter has a small amount of material from the wings of the Wright brothers’ first airplane, NASA said in a statement Tuesday. The swatch of fabric is wrapped with tape around a cable located underneath the helicopter’s solar panel.
Full Story (The Hill)

Ingenuity Takes Off in Fourth Flight from Mars

SPACE reported that on Friday at 10:49 a.m. EDT, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter lifted off from Mars for the fourth time. Ingenuity “covered 872 feet (266 meters) of ground and reached a top speed of 8 mph (13 kph) during the 117-second jaunt, NASA officials said.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Ingenuity Makes Second Flight on Mars

The New York Times reports that at 5:33 a.m. EDT Thursday, Ingenuity lifted off from the Jezero crater on Mars for its second flight on the Red Planet. The helicopter “reached a height of 16 feet, tilted itself by 5 degrees to move seven feet sideways, hovered and turned to point its color camera in multiple directions, then returned to its starting point to land. This flight lasted 59.1 seconds.”
Full Story (New York Times)

Ingenuity Conducts Third Flight on Mars

The New York Times reports that on Sunday, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew on Mars for the third time, traveling further and faster than the previous two flights. The helicopter “perfectly executed its instructions from Earth.” The helicopter “lifted 16 feet off the ground, then flew a round-trip distance of 328 feet before landing back where it started.” The distance “was about 25 times as far as the second flight flew three days ago. The helicopter reached a top speed of 4.5 miles per hour, and the flight lasted about one minute and 20 seconds.”
Full Story (New York Times)

Ingenuity Unlocks Rotor Blades Ahead of First Flight on Mars

SPACE reports that the NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity “has unlocked its two rotor blades as preparations continue for the vehicle’s first flight, due to occur no earlier than Sunday (April 11).” NASA’s JPL said in a tweet Thursday, “The blades of glory, aka rotor blades of the #MarsHelicopter, have been unlocked and are ready for testing. … Next, we’ll do a slow-speed spin-up of the blades for the first time on the Martian surface.” NASA officials “have said they will test the blades first at 50 and then at 2,400 revolutions per minute before the helicopter attempts to fly.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Ingenuity Makes 29th Flight

CNET News reports that NASA JPL confirmed the Ingenuity helicopter’s 29th flight in a tweet Tuesday, “saying the chopper completed the 66.6-second journey over the weekend, traveling 587 feet (179 meters) across Mars. Ingenuity’s previous flight, No. 28, took place at the end of April.”
Aviation Today (CNET News)

Ingenuity Makes 30th Flight

CNET News reports that NASA “announced Monday that Ingenuity successfully pulled off its 30th flight.” NASA JPL tweeted, “After a two-month hiatus, the rotorcraft did a short hop over the weekend so the team can check its vitals and knock some dust off the solar panel.”
Full Story (CNET News)