The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s carbon fiber blades can be seen in this video taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol, of the objective. They are carrying out a wiggle test prior to the real spin-up to guarantee they were working effectively. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Friday (April 23, 2021) I got to compose the entry for the 2nd effective speculative flight test from “Wright Brothers Field” in the job’s main logbook, which is called “The Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons.” Next possibility to make an entry is turning up quickly: We’re targeting our 3rd flight for this Sunday, April 25, with preliminary datasets and images getting here in our control space at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory around 7: 16 a.m. PDT (10: 16 a.m. EDT).
Ingenuity Mars primary pilot Håvard Grip records information of the very first flight of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter into the main pilot’s logbook for the job – the “Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons.” The image was taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on April 19, 2021. Pilot logbooks are utilized by pilots to supply a record of their flights, consisting of present and built up flight time, number and areas of departures and landings, in addition to special operating conditions and accreditations. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As a number of you understand, we bring a piece of the initial Wright Flyer aboard our helicopter. Even though we are performing our flight tests in a rare environment over 180 million miles (290 million kilometers) from Earth, we design our systematic technique to speculative flight on the Wright bros’ technique. Our strategy from Day One has actually been to prepare like insane, fly, evaluate the information (like insane), and after that prepare for an even bolder test in the next flight.
This 0.5-inch x 0.5-inch (1.3 x 1.3 centimeter) square of natural muslin product from the Wright bros’ very first aircraft was encapsulated in a protective polyamide movie prior to being connected to a cable television below the photovoltaic panel of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Procured by the Wrights from a regional outlet store in downtown Dayton, Ohio, the cotton material (called “Pride of the West Muslin”) was at the time primarily utilized for women underwears. In the front parlor of their house, the Wrights cut the product into strips and utilized the household stitching device to produce wing coverings for their aircraft Flyer 1, which accomplished the very first powered, managed flight on Earth on Dec. 17, 1903. The example of product from the Wright bros’ very first aircraft was gotten from the Carillon Historical Park, in Dayton, Ohio — house to the Wright Brothers National Museum. The image was taken in a tidy space at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on January 15, 2020. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
During the 2nd flight, on April 22, Ingenuity autonomously reached 5 meters (16 feet) in height, took a trip 2 meters (7 feet) to the east and back, and stayed air-borne 51.9 seconds. It likewise made 3 turns, amounting to about 276 degrees.
We’re bewaring with each brand-new venture in the skies of Mars as we continue to construct self-confidence in the abilities of this brand-new expedition platform. For the 3rd flight, we’re targeting the exact same elevation, however we are going to open things up a bit too, increasing our max airspeed from 0.5 meters per 2nd to 2 meters per 2nd (about 4.5 miles per hour) as we head 50 meters (164 feet) north and go back to land at Wright Brothers Field. We’re preparing for an overall flight time of about 80 seconds and an overall range of 100 meters (330 feet).
This picture of the main pilot’s logbook for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flights – the “Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons” – was taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on April 19, 2021, the day of Ingenuity’s very first historical flight. Pilot logbooks are utilized by pilots to supply a record of their flights, consisting of present and built up flight time, number and areas of departures and landings, in addition to special operating conditions and accreditations. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
While that number might not appear like a lot, think about that we never ever moved laterally more than about two-pencil lengths when we flight-tested in the vacuum chamber here on Earth. And while the 4 meters of lateral motion in Flight Two (2 meters out and after that 2 meters back) was excellent, supplying great deals of excellent information, it was still just 4 meters. As such, Flight Three is a huge action, one in which Ingenuity will start to experience flexibility in the sky.
After each of our flights, I have had the benefit of submitting our logbook and recording the flight highlights — something pilots have actually been doing given that the early days of flying. While I’ve made logbook entries prior to as a terrestrial fixed-wing pilot, these are the most uncommon entries I have actually made. They are likewise the most rewarding, not just due to the fact that they represent flight on another world, however due to the fact that each notation represents a chest of important information that our group has actually invested years preparing to acquire.
Written by Håvard Grip, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Chief Pilot at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
