NASA's Martian Helicopter 'Ingenuity' Nears its First Flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A small helicopter attached to the NASA rover Perseverance will soon take flight to conduct the first flight of an aircraft on another world.

The drone-style helicopter known as Ingenuity will provide the Red Planet with a first of its kind air show the first week of April. During a 30-day window, engineers hope to perform up to five flight tests -- each building on the previous flight.

At $85 million, the Ingenuity program is an investment in understanding aviation in the very thin Martian atmosphere. The planet's surface pressure is only .088% that of Earth's, and this may make it difficult to provide the necessary lift in order to fly.

"When the Wright Brothers flew for the first time, they flew an experimental aircraft," Ingenuity's chief pilot Håvard Grip explained. "In the same way, the Mars helicopter is designed to show we can fly a powered helicopter flight in the Martian atmosphere."

NASA to Conduct the First Martian Air Show

Controlled from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Ingenuity will be lowered from the belly of Perseverance. Signals from Earth will then detach the copter and it will drop a few inches to the Martian surface and land on its four legs.

Perseverance will then roll away exposing the copter to direct Sun light to charge its six lithium-ion batteries. The rover will travel to an area 330-feet north of the copter's flight zone known as Twitcher’s point.

"The helicopter will then have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight test window," NASA JPL spokesperson DC Agle said. "If Ingenuity survives its first bone-chilling Martian nights – where temperatures dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit – the team will proceed with the first flight of an aircraft on another world."

Ingenuity is autonomous and will not be controlled by a joystick on Earth due to the 130 million miles between the two planets. The aerial vehicle is designed to fly, land, communicate, manage its energy, and keep warm autonomously.

According to DC Agle, innovative mathematical algorithms will allow flight in the thin atmosphere and track the helicopter’s flight path.

The twin rotor blade rotorcraft has a fuselage about the size of a tissue box. It weighs four pounds on Earth, however on Mars its weight is just 1.5 pounds.

Each flight test will launch from a 30x30 foot airfield near Jezero Crater. JPL engineers will fly Ingenuity up to an altitude of 10-15 feet, and about 160-feet down range. Each of the five flights will last up to 90 seconds.

Two cameras are built-in to the craft to record images during flight. One color for capturing views of the nearby terrain, and one black and white for navigation.

There will be no real time video of the flights. JPL estimates it will take two days to receive the three color and four black-and-white images from Ingenuity first flight.

Meanwhile, Perseverance is expected to capture the flight with images, video, and audio of the first powered flight on Mars.

(Charles A Atkeison reports on aerospace and technology. Follow his updates via social media @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)