NASA/Ingenuity Mars Summary/Reader response Draft#2

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    NASA’s Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity


Part 1: Summary Description

On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, along with their rover, Perseverance, successfully landed in Jezero Crater, Mars (Gohd, 2021). Ingenuity is the first aircraft to have flown on Mars. According to Mimi Aung, Ingenuity’s project manager at NASA, it had been fully tested on Earth before it took off for its Mars mission. Ingenuity was not designed to help with research on Mars. Its main responsibility is to test flight on Mars and prove that flight is possible on Mars. Ingenuity faced several challenges on its mission to Mars, such as attempting flight in Mars' thin atmosphere and dealing with wind and dust storms, as well as receiving enough energy through its solar panels to power itself.

Ingenuity succeeded with the first three flights, flying each subsequent flight to higher altitudes and for longer durations. However, on its fourth flight attempt, the helicopter failed to shift to "flight mode," which resulted in a delay of the fourth flight. As the flight mission was going better than expected, Ingenuity had been tasked with finding a new flight location and taking pictures of the location on its fifth flight, all without the support of Perseverance nearby. For now, Ingenuity will continue to set new boundaries and explore more of Mars.

Part 2: Response Analysis

Thesis Statement: The Ingenuity helicopter is a creative robotic design system for the Mars mission that represents a technological demonstration. The design of Ingenuity mainly consists of flight specs, antennae for communication, a solar panel, and carbon-fiber blades. 

Discussion and Analysis

The pioneer helicopter, which flew on a different planet, can be described as a genius robotic design which opened up a new future for engineering robotic designs (Withrow et al., 2020). The aim of the innovative robotic design was to demonstrate a controlled flight for an aircraft in Mars surroundings. This is achieved through the high design of flight specs. The important thing about the Ingenuity experimental process is that it opens an aerial exploration of Mars through its flights. At the same time, Ingenuity helps to make a validation of aerodynamics, operations, control, as well as navigation ideas of flight on Mars. The flights of Ingenuity are critical for future developments of new Mars robotic helicopter designs on other missions (Balaram et al., 2021). With data from Ingenuity flights, future helicopters can be deployed to help search for better science targets and investigations. 


Ingenuity was designed as a small, lightweight robot that looks like a drone helicopter. The engineers who came up with this design aimed to prove the feasibility of a flight on another planet. This robotic design paves the way for humans to fly on another planet. It will also assist in future Mars missions with rovers and helicopters (Balaram et al., 2021). The ingenuity design system was able to overcome the challenge of the atmosphere on Mars. Creating a helicopter lift on Mars is a difficult task compared to Earth. This is because, in Mars, surface gravity is 40% of Earth. The thin Mars atmosphere was an extreme factor for the helicopter to lift due to less density. The conditions on Mars are very challenging, but Ingenuity engineers created a design that works perfectly on mars (Rogerson, 2021). 

The advanced manufacturing that was used in designing Ingenuity was key to dealing with the atmosphere challenges on Mars. The robotic system design of the Mars helicopter was done using two rotors or blades, which were created from carbon fibre (Withrow et al., 2020). The rotors were required to make very fast spins, more than any other known helicopter in the world. The rotors were designed to make at least 2400 rpm. Also, the blades of the Mars helicopter were made to be unique, as they were much bigger than the body (Grady, 2021). 

Another technological advancement used in the design is the signal transmission using the communication antennae. In communication, the commands for the Mars helicopter needed to be sent earlier. The engineering data from the Mars helicopter came to Earth long after a flight. Ingenuity was designed to make flight decisions on its own based on environmental concerns. This is due to the communication lags created by the distance between Mars and Earth, which make it impossible to fly the helicopter live. The system design for the robotic design also had creative solar cells and batteries (Withrow et al., 2020). 

Conclusion

The design of Ingenuity and the achievement of a maiden flight on Mars planet is nothing short of an engineering marvel that opens a new engineering future for space missions. The Mars helicopter was a huge technological achievement, considering the harsh environmental conditions on Mars that were overcome through the design of improved flight specs, communication antennae, a solar panel, and carbon razor blades. Ingenuity is an engineering project that sought to experiment with new heights for the first time with its unique feature components. The robotic design of Ingenuity is a demonstration of the high levels in the field of engineering. The Mars helicopter is a statement from NASA engineers that it is possible to develop a lightweight aircraft that can make a lift on another planet with a thin atmosphere and other harsh conditions. 

References

Balaram, J., Aung, M., & Golombek, M. P. (2021). The ingenuity helicopter on the perseverance rover. Space Science Reviews, 217(4), 1-11. https://sci-hub.ee/https:/link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-021-00815-w

Gohd, C. (2021, May 22). Mars helicopter Ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on the Red Planet. Space.com.  https://www.space.com/ingenuity-mars-helicopter-perseverance-rover

Grady, M. (2021, April 19). Mars: how Ingenuity helicopter made the first flight on another planet. The Conversation.  https://theconversation.com/mars-how-ingenuity-helicopter-made-the-first-flight-on-another-planet-159261

Rogerson, J. (2021, April 21). NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flight on Mars opens up a new frontiers in space exploration. The Conversation.  https://theconversation.com/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-flight-on-mars-opens-up-new-frontiers-in-space-exploration-159401

Withrow, S., Johnson, W., Young, L. A., Cummings, H., Balaram, J., & Tzanetos, T. (2020). An advanced mars helicopter design. In ASCEND 2020 (p. 4028). https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20205008553/downloads/1441_Withrow_101220.pdf


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