The American rover Perseverance has just dropped the debris shield responsible for protecting its companion Ingenuity during landing. According to NASA, a first flight could be attempted in April.
Ingenuity is a technology demonstration side mission – a project that seeks to test a new capability for the first time, with a limited scope. In this case:flying to Mars.
It won't be an easy task. The Martian atmosphere is indeed very sparse (about 1% of the density of our atmosphere on Earth). As a result, Ingenuity was designed to be lightweight (just 1.8 kg), with rotor blades capable of spinning much faster than would be required on Earth with a similar helicopter.
On the other hand, Martian gravity is about one-third that of Earth. This means that a little more mass can be lifted with a given speed of rotation.
Since its departure from Earth in July 2020, Ingenuity has been nestled under the belly of Perseverance, sheltered by a shell intended to protect it from debris thrown up during landing. This protective shield, the engineers of the mission have just detached it. Thus begins the process of delivering the craft safely to the surface of the planet.
A few days ago, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said it had found the perfect "aerodrome" for this first test flight. This is an area of 10 meters by 10 on which all the pebbles (or almost) are less than five centimeters high. The surface must also be relatively flat (maximum slope 4 degrees).
Once Perseverance is inside this area (at the earliest during the first week of April), researchers will disable the locking mechanism that keeps Ingenuity in place. Once the helicopter landed on the surface, the JPL will give itself a few days to operate a first test. The rotorcraft will then activate its blades at nearly 2,900 rpm , before rising (hopefully) to a height of about three meters for thirty seconds.
During this time, Perseverance will place itself at a good distance and try to document (sounds and images) the event.
If successful, up to four additional flights could then be attempted for approximately 90 seconds and over several hundred meters . Here's what those tests might look like:
Once these operations are completed, Ingenuity will then be abandoned in place forever, paving the way for other flying vehicles that may integrate future missions to Mars. These craft could provide a unique vantage point for astronauts by spotting traversal routes otherwise inaccessible by rovers and other landers. They could also allow the transport or recovery of small payloads.
