The creativity helicopter made its first historic flight on the surface of Mars

(CNN) – The Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its historic journey on Mars and landed safely on Mars, according to NASA.

The first controlled and operated flight took place on another planet at 3:30 AM Miami time.

Unlike when the persistent rover, the helicopter’s companion, landed on Mars – on February 18th – there was some wait to see how the helicopter succeeded in its attempt.

The helicopter team was on mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, early Monday morning to receive and analyze the first data from the creativity flight attempt.

“Fabulous!”

The Embed a Tweet Every team cheers because they receive video data from Embed a Tweet Rover for ingenuity # helicopter Flight: pic.twitter.com/8eH4H6jGKs

NASA (@ NASA) April 19, 2021

Live coverage on the NASA website began Monday morning at 6:15 a.m. Miami time, and a post-flight briefing is scheduled for 2 p.m. and Miami this Monday.

The flight was originally scheduled for April 11, but changed after a scripting issue was discovered when the helicopter went through its program’s pre-flight inspection system.

Ingenuity performed a high-speed test of its rotors on April 10, but the script was terminated earlier due to the watch’s timer expiring. This early end of testing occurred when the helicopter was attempting to switch the computer from flight mode prior to the flight itself.

The Helicopter Team has identified a sequence-of-command overhaul that would alter the time that flight controllers start the helicopter. This should facilitate the transition from preflighting both hardware and software.

This setting was chosen instead of modifying and reinstalling the existing flight control software, which is the backup plan if the setup does not allow for a successful takeoff.

The helicopter crew received data on April 16 showing that the helicopter successfully completed a rapid rotation test after using the decoration.

The helicopter flew independently through the thin Martian atmosphere, without the aid of control teams on Earth.

“Now we can say that humans have flown a helicopter on another planet,” said Mi Ong, director of the innovation project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We have been talking about our time as the Wright brothers on another planet for a long time. And now I have arrived.”

First creative flight on Mars

Creativity, a tech show, flew in for 40 seconds in total on Monday. The 1.8-kilogram helicopter rotated its two blades of just over 1 meter, rose 3 meters in the air, flew, took a photo, and landed again on the surface of Mars.

Creativity can fly four more times over the next few weeks.

The small helicopter has achieved several milestones so far. How to move their shovels and stay alive Cold nights on Mars.

It takes 15 minutes and 27 seconds for the radio signals to cross the current gap between Earth and Mars, which extends over 173 million miles, or about 278.4 million kilometers.

Ong said, “Mars is difficult not only when you land, but when you try to take off and fly as well.” “It has much less gravity, but it’s less than 1% of the atmospheric pressure at its surface. Put these things together and you have a car that requires all the data in the system to be correct.”

Capture the first flight of ingenuity

The Perseverance Wagon helps the helicopter and its mission team on the ground to communicate with each other. He received flight instructions from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and sent those plans to the helicopter. Persist parked at a lookout point 65 meters from the helicopter so you can safely watch the flight and take photos and videos.

I drove about halfway to my ignore point, where I’ll be watching # helicopterFlight test from a distance of about 200 feet (about 60 meters).

I will have zoom cameras that focus on the flight. Meanwhile, you can see creativity centered on these displays from my navigation cameras. pic.twitter.com/fmmgJRLIVg

– NASA’s Perseverance on Mars (@ NASAPersevere) April 9, 2021

While the helicopter was in flight, I took pictures 30 times per second to access the navigation computer. This ensures creativity stays level and in the middle of its 10 x 10 meter airfield.

He used the versatility of a second high-resolution horizon-pointing camera to take pictures every time the helicopter was in the air.

Once the helicopter landed on Mars, the data was sent back to Earth via the rover.

Low-resolution black and white images from the helicopter’s navigation camera will likely be available first, followed by the color image the next day. The rover will also send photos and videos from many of its cameras. Perseverance has been videotaping the helicopter as it tests its blades in recent days.

Wobble, wobble, wobble 🎶

With a little bit of swing, the # helicopter It moved its blades and rotation to 50 rpm in preparation for its first flight! The take-off date is set for April 11, with overnight confirmation expected until April 12 for us Earthlings. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/EpDZymjP13

– NASA JPL (@ NASAJPL) April 9, 2021

“The Wright brothers had only a handful of eyewitnesses to their first flight, but fortunately this historic moment was captured in one remarkable photo,” Michael Watkins, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. “Now, 117 years later, we can offer a wonderful opportunity to share the results of our first attempt at controlled and powerful flight in another world through our robotic photographers on Mars.”

That first black-and-white image from the helicopter’s navigation camera is key because it “will help us locate where the helicopter lands,” said Tim Canham, Chief Innovation Officer at JPL.

Ingenuity’s chief pilot, Grip will analyze the first data returned from the helicopter to determine if it has successfully hoisted, floated, turned and landed.

“The main purpose of this project is to obtain detailed engineering data that allows you to see the vehicle’s performance, and then this data can be used in future projects to build bigger and better helicopters,” Canham said.

Future trips

“From the very first day of this project, our team has had to overcome a wide range of seemingly insurmountable technical challenges,” Ong said. “We’ve come this far with an attitude that never gives up, lots of friends from many different tech disciplines, and an agency that loves to turn strange ideas into reality.”

After the first flight, Creative will have a “day off” to recharge with solar panels. The team will use the data that the helicopter sent that week to plan its next flight.

The rhythm between trips will be gradually shortened. Creativity can fly four days after the first flight, then three days after the second flight, and so on. On recent flights, the helicopter was raised to a height of up to 5 meters and made sideways movements of up to 15 meters back and forth.

“Once we get to the fourth and fifth flights, we will have fun,” said Ong. “We really want to push the boundaries. You can’t test a helicopter on Mars every day. That’s why we want to be very adventurous.”