Ingenuity Helicopter On Mars Ready To Return To Mission At The Beginning Of The Year

Ingenuity will fly to South Seítah, Mars. (photo: doc. NASA)

JAKARTA - After accomplishing its missions in 2021, and exceeding all expectations, NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity will be flapping its wings again this new year.

Scheduled for January 7, if there are no obstacles, Ingenuity will fly from its current location in South Séítah to the Jezero river delta on flight 19.

The imagery that the helicopter will capture along the way will help plan a mission to design a route for the Perseverance rover, which is also heading to the delta as part of the search for evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.

Ingenuity will fly as high as 207 feet (63 meters) above the surface of Mars at an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) and a speed of about 2.2 mph (1 meter per second).

The smart helicopter's journey will likely last around 100 seconds. Just prior to landing, Ingenuity will perform a 180-degree turn to flip the high-resolution Return-To-Earth (RTE) camera to a forward-facing orientation for its onward flight to the river delta.

"Although short, this flight had a challenging start as it will be over sandy terrain without the features currently used by helicopters," said Ingenuity pilot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Martin Cacan, as quoted by Digital Trends, Thursday, January 6.

“The area was actually so rockless for the Ingenuity landing, that a warning was reported during the Flight 18 landing due to inadequate features to track in sight navigation. As a result, the fault protection parameters will be updated to reduce the risk of an early landing in the middle of the ascent."

Ingenuity made history in April last year when it became the first aircraft to achieve powered and controlled flight on another planet. The craft proved itself capable of handling the planet's thin atmosphere and cold conditions.

The 19-inch, 4-pound helicopter is already operating well on the surface of Mars, allowing NASA engineers to learn as much as they can about its performance and design before developing more sophisticated craft on future planetary missions.

Reportedly, Ingenuity has reached a remarkable milestone in December when the total flight time on Mars reached 30 minutes, with a covered range of over 2 miles (3,218 meters) at an altitude of up to 40 feet (12 meters) and a speed of 10 mph (5 meters per second) with such extreme terrain.

Currently, the team crew will work to push Ingenuity to greater limits in the coming months, while assisting Perseverance with checking the safety of the proposed route from the air.