Washington A small research helicopter from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) called Ingenuity will attempt its first test flight to the surface of Mars on Monday morning at 9:31 CEST. It was originally scheduled to take off by the end of last week, but scientists have encountered a software problem that delayed the launch sequence, the space agency said in a statement.
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Ingenuity arrived on the surface of the red planet in February as part of the Perseverance reconnaissance rover. She subsequently separated from him and successfully spent her first solo night on the surface of Mars, which showed that the helicopter is capable of autonomous operation in local ruthless conditions, when the temperature drops to minus 90 degrees Celsius at night.
The scientists therefore began a series of tests to prepare for the first controlled flight of an object heavier than air on an alien space body. However, they encountered a software problem that did not allow the Ingenuity control unit to switch the machine to “flight mode” and start the high-speed rotor test, which is necessary before a sharp start of the machine.
NASA has therefore proposed two possible solutions. The first was a slight adjustment of the timing of individual commands executed by Ingenuities. The second was the modification and complete reinstallation of the helicopter control software. But it has been tested many times in the last two years on both Earth and Mars. According to scientists, intervening in it shortly before a sharp flight is therefore risky; Therefore, the engineers have so far rejected the second option and decided on the first method. With it, they managed to start and successfully perform a high-speed test of the rotors on Friday.
Ongoing uncertainty
However, whether it will be possible to get the machine into the air on Monday is uncertain, the scientists said in a statement. They approach Monday’s attempt as the planned launch date of the rocket – at the last minute it may turn out that the conditions or condition of the machine is not ideal and the flight will be postponed.
Should the Ingenuity not take off due to persistent problems with the boot sequence, the scientists are ready to proceed to the second step in an effort to overcome the current software obstacles. However, this would delay the test, as it would take several days to upload and test the new program.
If Monday’s flight was successful, the rover’s helicopter would first send the technical data about the maneuvers it had just performed, after which Perseverance would send them back to Earth. This first set of data should also include a black-and-white flight photograph from the Ingenuity camera, aimed directly down at the ground.
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The helicopter would then have to charge its batteries and the next day it would send a color photograph of the horizon, which it took in the air with another of its cameras.
However, the viewer’s most attractive photos and videos should come from the rover itself, which stands near the helicopter and will shoot its flight.
The Ingenuity has a very light construction weighing 1.8 kilograms and a pair of carbon rotors that rotate against each other. Flying in the very sparse atmosphere of Mars is much more demanding than on Earth, so the propellers will have to develop about 2400 rpm, which is many times more than ground helicopters.
Ingenuity does not carry any scientific instruments, its task is only to test the possibilities of flights on extraterrestrial bodies for possible use in future reconnaissance programs. For example, NASA has already approved a mission called Dragonfly, which aims to use a flying machine to explore the surface of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. It is planned sometime in the next decade.
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NASA has previously stated that it would consider a possible successful flight of the machine to be a milestone comparable to the first flight of an object heavier than air on Earth, which was demonstrated in 1903 by the Wright brothers. She also announced that the Ingenuity had brought a small fragment of the sail of their pioneering plane with them to Mars.
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