The first powered flight on another planet is scheduled for 2021. The small Mars helicopter is attached to the belly of the rover ‘Perseverance’. The mission will help us understand the future possibilities of utilizing aircraft on Mars.
Why Fly a Drone on another planet?
The Ingenuity’s primary objective is a ‘demonstration flight’ which is intended to understand the technologies needed for flying on the Red Planet. If the mission is successful, similar improved technologies such as advanced robotic flying vehicles can be utilized in the future exploration of Mars. Flying on Mars can offer a unique advantage especially to capture high definition images or reconnaissance for robots or even Humans and it can also enable access to difficult terrains for rovers.
Mars Helicopter Parts
Solar Panel: The topmost part of the drone is where the solar panels are mounted which helps to charge the batteries autonomously.
Antennas: For communicating with Earth through the Mars 2020 rover and spacecraft in Mars’ orbit.
Rotor blades: Carbon fiber propeller blades to provide the necessary lift to the aircraft.
Batteries: 6 sony li-ion cells with 140 kilo-joules of battery energy capacity.
Fuselage: Holds the avionics system which consists of a number of electronic instruments used to perform the required flight controlled functions.
Sensors and camera: for surveillance and majorly for creating a feedback loop to help operate the aircraft autonomously.
Legs: Very lightweight legs made from carbon fiber tubes to land the aircraft after flights.
Creating Mars conditions on Earth to Test Ingenuity
Two parameters needed to be altered to successfully create Mars conditions on our planet.
Gravity: The ‘Gravity Offload’ technique was used to fake the Martian gravity pulling down on this drone. This was achieved by using an appropriate fishing cord, a Brush DC motor, a Reaction torque sensor, and a pulley which was mounted on the ceiling of the space simulator and other end was attached to Ingenuity so that it weighed only 38% of its actual weight as if it was on Mars.
Air Pressure: The ‘twenty-five-foot space simulator’ was used to generate Martian atmospheric pressures. To test the propeller blade’s ability to provide lift force in a thin atmosphere.
Ingenuity Design Challenges
Mars has a very thin atmosphere: In terms of density, about 1% of the atmosphere on Earth. And hence a lot of air has to be pushed downward to provide the necessary lift force. And to achieve this, The propeller blades onboard Ingenuity rotate at 2300 to 2900RPM. Even at these RPMs, the blades are designed to reach a 0.7 Mach number in order to avoid the complex aerodynamic difficulties which arise in the case of supersonic flows at Mach 1 and beyond.
The major challenge of designing Ingenuity was weight constraint. And hence every part is manufactured keeping in mind the total weight of aircraft. The propellers which are the largest parts on board weigh only 38 grams each. The insulation material for keeping the avionics compartment warm is carbon dioxide gas contained in a foil surrounding the compartment to save weight.
Key facts
Flying Ingenuity on Mars is equivalent to Flying a similar helicopter on Earth at 100,000 feet. (Helicopters on earth have a record of flying at Max 40,000 ft.)
Mars Helicopter can fly up to 90 seconds and to distances of about 980 feet at a time while flying at 10 to 15 feet off the ground.
Because of the time delay in Earth to Mars Transmission of signals, Ingenuity has to Take-off, Fly and Land on its own.
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