A year ago, the machine made a historic first: a flight into the atmosphere of Mars, impossible to simulate on Earth. Simple technology demonstrator, this little helicopter still works. He proved that an exploration through the sky of the planets is possible.
Initially programmed to perform five short flights in a month, ingenuity Never ceases to amaze designers. This small helicopter developed by NASA made the first powered flight on Mars on April 19, 2021. Today he has 25 flights on his odometer, covering almost 6,000 meters in a cumulative 46 minutes. Compared to a remote-controlled helicopter, this may seem skimpy. Yet it is an achievement. Because flying a machine in an atmosphere as scarce as that of Mars presented many challenges. Above all, it was impossible to reproduce the atmospheric conditions of the red planet in the laboratory. But in April 2021, the first static chip jump was hailed as an achievement.
Mimi Aung, The chief engineer of the proposed project from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a machine equipped with extra large blades to provide elevator. She equipped it with an ultra-fast rotor and a solar panel to charge the battery. And everything continues to work. This success has also made him one of the Times’ 100 Most Influential People of 2021.
“What we see there is a harbinger of the future”
Without an initial scientific purpose, Ingenuity is a demonstrator. In other words, a test to verify whether a bold idea can work. NASA has already used this technique in the past, emphasizes Christophe Chaffardon, director of science, culture and education at the Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse. †25 years ago the Americans on Mars began a small demonstration of this type, to stay a small rover the size of a shoe box to see if he could drive on Mars. And yes, he could roll. And 25 years later, NASA was able to send a rover the size of a car, like Perseverance. So what we see there is a harbinger of the future”† In the future, he thinks, planets or their satellites could be explored with larger helicopters. The advantage: They can cover greater distances and offer a different viewing angle than rolling robots or orbiting satellites.
It is indeed a new approach that is taking shape. Complementary to other exploration tools for future planetary missions. NASA is already working on Dragonfly, Another drone was intended in 2034 of Titan, a moon of Saturn, flying. He will have to face other challenges: the acidity of Titan’s air and its heat. When it lands, its scientific instruments will then have to perform a whole series of analyses.
