NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which made history with its first powered flight on another world, has exceeded expectations, complete...
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which made history with its first powered flight on another world, has exceeded expectations, completed dozens of more flights than planned, and completed a nearly three-year mission. Completed.
http://www.5minutesnews.com/2024/01/govt-announces-list-of-2024-padma-shri.html
In a statement released Thursday, the U.S. space agency announced that the aircraft that was scheduled to fly to Mars under the belly of the rover Perseverance took off from the surface for the first time on April 19, 2021.
Initially intended only to prove that flight was possible, in his five tests in the ultrathin Martian atmosphere, Ingenuity was used a total of 72 times, and in short jumps he completed a flight of more than two hours.
Over the course of a long mission spanning nearly 1,000 Martian days, more than 33 times originally planned, Ingenuity will autonomously select a landing site in hazardous terrain, respond to a broken sensor, and recover after a sandstorm. It has been upgraded with the ability to do cleaning.
It flew from 48 different airfields, made three emergency landings and survived the cold Martian winter, according to NASA. "Ingenuity's historic journey as the first aircraft to visit another planet has come to an end," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
“This amazing helicopter flew higher and further than we could have ever imagined, helping NASA do what it does best: make the impossible possible.” Through our missions, we are paving the way for future flights in the solar system and smarter, safer human exploration to Mars and beyond.”
That mission evolved into an aerial reconnaissance aircraft designed to help the wheeled buddy search for traces of ancient microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was much wetter and warmer. Ingenuity's durability has exceeded all expectations, withstanding challenges such as sandstorms, treacherous terrain, broken sensors, and cold conditions. The solar-powered heating system was designed to operate in the spring and could not be left on overnight in the winter, causing flight computers to freeze and forcing engineers to develop new protocols.
After the last flight, NASA unexpectedly lost contact and then reestablished contact, but the relief for space enthusiasts did not last long. According to the data, the helicopter reached the planned maximum altitude of 12 meters and hovered there for 4.5 seconds. However, on the way to landing, there was a temporary power outage about 1 meter above the ground. "Images showing damage to the rotor blades were received several days later. The cause of the communications failure and the helicopter's orientation upon landing are still under investigation," the statement said. Teddy Tsanetos, Ingenuity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters Thursday that the broken blade hit the Martian surface during landing, and that "the last 25 percent of the length" of the appendage was He said he was cut off.
"We just lost a lot of our thrust capability," he said, adding that "we'll never know" whether rotor impact or communication loss came first. "At some point... we will be incommunicado," Tsanetos said, but it's unclear whether that will happen within days or months. Tzanetos said the knowledge gained from Ingenuity will continue to be incorporated into Mars flights for many years to come. "None of us should be surprised if in the future the first astronauts, the first women and men reach the surface (of Mars) and there are planes flying around," he said.
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