The malfunction appeared during
the testing of the aircraft's rotors on Saturday.
Scheduled for Sunday, Ingenuity's
trip is postponed until at least April 14.
NASA has delayed for several days
its mission; the first flight of its miniature helicopter on Mars because of a
technical problem.
This problem appeared during the
test of its rotors, announced Saturday, April 10 the U.S. space agency.
The trip of Ingenuity - the first
flight of a motorized machine on Mars - was scheduled for Sunday.
A high-speed test of the
1.8-kilogram helicopter's rotors ended earlier than expected after an alert
warning of a potential problem was triggered.
"The helicopter team is
reviewing the telemetry to diagnose and understand the problem," NASA said
in a statement.
"Following that, they will
reschedule the test at full speed, "NASA said the helicopter was
"safe and sound" and sent information back to Earth.
Initially, the mission for Sunday
was to fly Ingenuity in place for thirty seconds to take a picture of the Perseverance rover.
Which landed on Mars on Feb 18
with the helicopter attached to its underside.
NASA calls this unprecedented mission
very risky.
The flight is a real challenge,
because to fly in a Martian atmosphere much less dense than that of our planet.
The rotation speed of Ingenuity's
blades must be much higher (at least 2,400 revolutions per minute).
1. Five flights planned
The helicopter will transmit
technical data to the Perseverance rover, which will in turn be sent to
Earth.
Among these first data, a black
and white photo of the ground taken by Ingenuity.
Then, once its batteries are
recharged, it will transmit a color image of the horizon.
But the most spectacular images
should come from Perseverance, placed in observation several meters away, and
which should film the flight.
In case of success, a second
mission (flight to the space) could take place four days later.
Up to five flights to the space
in all are planned, of increasing difficulty.
One of NASA's objectives being
that the helicopter rises to a height of 5 meters, then moves sideways.
The first of the planned missions
will be the Mars equivalent of the first powered flight on Earth, in 1903, by
the Wright brothers.
Piece of fabric from that
aircraft that took off more than a century ago in North Carolina, USA, has even
been placed aboard Ingenuity.
Whatever happens, after a month
at the most, Ingenuity's mission will come to an end.
That’s by leaving the
Perseverance rover to focus on its main task: searching for traces of ancient life
on Mars planet.
2. The Wright brothers' first flight
If successful, the second flight
will take place no more than four days later.
Up to five flights in all are
planned, of increasing difficulty.
NASA would like to be able to
make the helicopter going up to 5 meters high, and then try to make it move sideways.
The operation will be the
equivalent on Mars of the first flight of a motorized aircraft on Earth, in
1903, by the Wright brothers.
A piece of fabric from this
aircraft that took off more than a century ago in US has even been placed on
board Ingenuity.
3. Optimizing for Martian atmospheric conditions
Technically, the big challenge
for Ingenuity is to "send a lot of mass to the ground".
To do this, we must send the
little matter that there is in the Martian air as quickly as possible with a
very high rotation speed.
On Ingenuity, it is between 2,400
and 2,900 revolutions per minute, which is "10 times that of the blades of
a helicopter on Earth".
"This is what will cause the
propulsive force and elevation of the aircraft. "
But this necessary speed has
"a huge drawback".
At the end of the blades, it
"quickly reaches the speed of sound"! Of course, this is a known
phenomenon and perfectly mastered on Earth, but on Mars.
NASA is "confronted with a new and almost
unexplored field of aerodynamics with such a small rotor and
blades".
On Mars, this speed of sound is
238 meters per second; lower than on Earth, measured at 340 meters per second.
At some point during the flight,
Ingenuity will be confronted with "transonic phenomena, which are
aerodynamic phenomena generated at the passage of sound barrier.
Specifically, there is a
"kind of sound barrier that occurs at the tip of the blade, which slows
down the rotor".
4. To avoid drama, Perseverance will move away
At the same time, Perseverance
rover (which housed Ingenuity inside before dropping it recently) will move
away from about 60 meters, for safety reasons.
NASA plans up to five flights, of
increasing difficulty, over a one-month period.
In the end, what is the mission
of this spacecraft? By rising from the ground, it will be able to film what is
in front of Perseverance.
The images will allow guiding the
robot even better.
5. Temperature is in the Martian crater
Among the scientific instruments
embarked by the Perseverance rover on Mars, there is a meteorological station.
MEDA (for "Mars
Environmental DynamicsAnalyzer") provided a first-ever "weather
report" in the Jezero crater, where the Mars 2020 mission landed on Feb
18, 2021.
The weather station sensors were
deployed shortly thereafter.
On April 6, NASA informed that
the astromobile had obtained its first temperature measurement on Mars planet:
When the system started operating
on Feb.19, it was less than -20°C on the surface of the Red Planet, at its
location in Jezero crater.
The measured temperature rose to
-25.6°C, 30 minutes later.
