TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – NASA helicopter drone on Mars, Ingenuity, repeating the success of its second flight test, Thursday 22 April 2021. That time Ingenuity managed to fly for 51.9 seconds, compared to about 25 seconds it first performed on 19 April. Apart from staying in the air longer, the helicopter also flew higher and had a chance to move horizontally.
“So far, the telemetry technique we have received and the analysis tells us that the flight has met expectations and our computer modeling is accurate,” said Bob Balaram, Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Engineering Team Leader at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA in Southern California, Thursday.
He said there would still be two more flight tests to be carried out on Ingenuity. “This means that there is still a lot to be learned throughout this month,” he added.
For the second flight test yesterday, at the site on Mars which is now named ‘Wright Brothers Field’, Ingenuity took off at 5.33 EDT or 16.33 WIB. In the first test flight he flew at an altitude of 3 meters, this time it was 5 meters.
After a moment in the air, the flight control system made the helicopter appear to be tilted 5 degrees allowing it to move about 2 meters. The helicopter then stopped, hovered in place, and turned to face the Perseverance camera from a different direction. He then flew back to his starting position and landed.
“It seems simple, but there is a lot we don’t know about how to fly a helicopter on Mars. That’s why we are here – to uncover it all,” said Håvard Grip, Head of the Ingenuity Pilot Team.
For the record, operating a controlled aircraft on Mars is much more difficult than on Earth. Even though the planet’s gravity is only one-third that of Earth, helicopters must fly with an atmospheric density that is only one percent on Earth.
As a result, every second of Ingenuity’s test flight provides abundant flight data to compare with modeling, simulations and tests conducted on Earth. NASA also gained hands-on experience operating a long-range helicopter on Mars.
All data from the demonstration flight will be very valuable for the potential for future Mars missions, which include adding to the dimension of exploration from the air.
Because the data and images obtained indicate Ingenuity is capable of flying as expected, the team at JPL is considering the next flight test profile to obtain additional aeronautical data from the first out-of-Earth mission.
If you follow the initial scenario, your next target is to fly 50 meters and come back. Then the fourth one, does the same but at a higher speed. The last flight was the one that boosted the ability Ingenuity up to the maximum ability that can knock him down.
MARS.NASA
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