Why the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars is so important

Ingenuity was designed and built from the same human characteristic that gave it its name (“ingenuity”, in Portuguese). Thousands of dedicated, hardworking and creative people have worked for years to make it a reality. When I ask scientists if they have ever imagined a helicopter flying to Mars, most of them say “no” — but they are happy and impressed that the helicopter exists and is actively flying through the Martian atmosphere.

The journey has not been an easy one for the helicopter. Imagine building an experiment, a technology to be demonstrated on another planet, and not running into some problems. Several times, the aircraft and its team overcame these challenges and continued to explore.

The Perseverance rover, which is about the size of an SUV, was built to survive at least two years on Mars; Ingenuity does not. The 1.8-kilogram helicopter was created for five experimental flight tests in April.

So far, Ingenuity has made an astonishing 15 flights and has yet to abandon Perseverance. Together, they are exploring Mars in an unprecedented way that could reveal whether life ever existed on the red planet. Ingenuity has been the perfect travel partner, exploring and leading the way. And Perseverance doesn’t have to make the journey alone.

surviving on mars

As human beings, we are intrigued by the flight and exploration of Mars. So it’s not surprising when something that unites the two ends up captivating people around the planet.

After the Perseverance rover survived the infamous “seven minutes of terror” landing on Mars in February, we hope to hear, too, that Ingenuity survived the seven-month journey through space.

I’ve had the privilege of covering the rover on CNN for years; the week of Perseverance’s landing on Mars was like the Super Bowl or the Oscars for me. In the closing hours of February 20th, I waited, still excited by the success of Perseverance, to see if Ingenuity would send us a message.

The small helicopter called home, from its safe place, inside the “belly” of the rover, to say that everything was fine. It was another big sigh of relief that week, but Ingenuity’s arduous path was just beginning.

Soon, he needed, like a butterfly, to break out of his cocoon and separate himself from the rover and its reliable source of energy. Perseverance would no longer be able to protect Ingenuity from the icy nights of Mars. The helicopter would have to protect itself.

Another sigh of relief came the first time Ingenuity charged itself using its solar panel and withstood freezing Martian nights, which can plummet to -90°C.

Perseverance and Ingenuity took a selfie together, sitting on the surface of Jezero crater, as if to say “hey, no problem. We’re just enjoying the place that was once an ancient Martian lake.” The photo still makes me smile; is one of my favorites this year.

So, it’s time for Ingenuity to fly. And it wasn’t easy either. But moments that go down in history never are.

Taking the first flight

The revolutionary first flight was originally scheduled for April 11, but plans changed after encountering a command sequence issue when the helicopter went through a pre-flight check system with their software.

On April 19, Ingenuity successfully completed the first powered controlled flight on another planet and landed safely back to the surface. Photos and videos taken by the rover, as well as aerial footage from the helicopter camera, showed Ingenuity in motion.

My favorite image is from Ingenuity’s perspective on itself, watching its own shadow boldly cross the Martian landscape.

The helicopter team celebrated in the control room on Earth, jumping out of their seats.

“Now we can say that human beings flew an aircraft on another planet,” said MiMi Aung, project manager of the Ingenuity project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California that day. “We’ve been talking about our ‘Wright brothers moment’ on another planet for so long. And now he has arrived.”

It is fitting that the mission carried a piece of history with it. A stamp-sized piece of muslin fabric that covered one of the wings of the Wright brothers’ Flyer 1 is attached to a cable under the helicopter’s solar panel.

That first powered controlled flight on Earth took place on the Flyer, North Carolina, when Orville and Wilbur Wright flew 36.6 meters for 12 seconds in December 1903. The Wright brothers made history when they conducted four separate flights on December 17, 1903 , and each one was a little longer than the last.

Ingenuity was not supposed to fly until April. But like the Wright brothers, he didn’t give up.

Since then, Ingenuity has sent us color images, gone from technology demonstration to an active explorer for the rover, survived a terrifying flight anomaly, flew through unstable weather on Mars, and performed record-breaking flights that are longer, more faster and more challenging than the previous ones.

from dream to reality

Think about the things in your life that weigh less than 2 pounds. Maybe it’s a pet or a family heirloom.

So imagine holding Ingenuity in your hands. Imagine that you have devoted years of your life to this object, built it, and watched it come to life—only to have it break during a test.

But then it became a reality, part of a mission to Mars. And it worked, and it still works.

Let’s be grateful that people like MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Chief Engineer Bob Balaram, and the rest of the Ingenuity team at NASA, for having worked so hard to make an idea on a shelf a successful reality.

Ingenuity is only 1.8 kilograms, but it carried all our hopes. It allowed us to dream of successors capable of even more. Ingenuity’s continual achievements awaken in us the same joy as Perseverance’s landing.

(Translated text. Read the original here).