NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Designed By IIT Alumni For Historic Flight

NASA successfully flew the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars at 1.04pm IST on Monday and received data confirming the same back here on Earth at 3.30pm IST.

NASA

It¡¯s the first aircraft to achieve controlled, powered flight on a planet beyond Earth.

It happened. Today our #MarsHelicopter proved that powered, controlled flight from the surface of another planet is possible. It takes a little ingenuity, perseverance, and spirit to make that opportunity a reality: https://t.co/oT3rrBm6wj pic.twitter.com/u63GKshp0G

¡ª NASA (@NASA) April 19, 2021

Designed by IIT alumnus Bob Balram, the chopper lifted off the surface of Mars to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and hovered in the wispy air of the red planet for 30 seconds--a feat that NASA officials have been likening it to the Wright brothers flight in 1903.

Balram, the Chief Engineer for Mars Helicopter Project at NASA¡¯s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), finished his B. Tech from IIT Madras in 1980. And you¡¯d be surprised to know that the seed for an idea like this sprouted for him in the 1960s Apollo era, during his childhood in South India.

NASA/JPL

The development of the helicopter drone started back in 2013 at the JPL and it completed its final flight test in January 2019. Bob, the inventor of the Mars chopper, innovated the design and saw through all phases of design, development and test as chief engineer of the project.

An experimental test flight

As one of NASA¡¯s technology demonstration projects, the 19.3-inch-tall Ingenuity Mars Helicopter contains no science instruments inside its tissue-box-size fuselage. Instead, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) rotorcraft is intended to demonstrate whether future exploration of the Red Planet could include an aerial perspective.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ingenuity features four specially made carbon-fiber blades arranged into two 4-foot-long (1.2-meter-long) counter-rotating rotors that spin at around 2,400 rpm--about eight times as fast as a standard helicopter on Earth--as well as innovative solar cells, battery, avionics, sensors, telecommunications, and other designs and algorithms.

Battling the extremes at the Red Planet

Mars has beyond bone-chilling temperatures, with nights as cold as minus 90 degrees Celsius at Jezero Crater where sediments, and perhaps chemical hints of ancient life, are preserved. But the chopper has done well to survive the frigid nights at the Red Planet as tested.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA says the first flight was full of unknowns. The Red Planet has a significantly lower gravity--one-third that of Earth¡¯s--and an extremely thin atmosphere with only 1 per cent the pressure at the surface compared to our planet.

This means there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity¡¯s rotor blades can interact to achieve flight. The helicopter contains unique components, as well as off-the-shelf-commercial parts--many from the smartphone industry--that were tested in deep space for the first time with this mission.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

And for those of you thinking: why can¡¯t we just fly this beast with a joystick? Well, the thing is delays are an inherent part of communicating with spacecraft across interplanetary distances. Here¡¯s how it works: Ingenuity communicates through the rover, which then chats with an orbiter, which, in turn, communicates with Earth.

And all of that took scientists at least two-and-a-half-hour just to receive confirmation that Ingenuity has taken flight autonomously on Mars.

Making history one step at a time

You see, the tiny chopper arrived on Mars tucked underneath the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover, which made a February 18 touch down on the Martian surface. And given the high-risk high-reward mission, the team at JPL had been steadily moving towards the historic first flight, one milestone at a time.

#MarsHelicopter touchdown confirmed! Its 293 million mile (471 million km) journey aboard @NASAPersevere ended with the final drop of 4 inches (10 cm) from the rover's belly to the surface of Mars today. Next milestone? Survive the night. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/XaBiSNebua

¡ª NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 4, 2021

The first was obvious: survive launch, cruise to Mars, and landing on the Red Planet. Thereafter, scientists monitored whether the chopper successfully unlocked from the rover; was deployed safely on the Martian surface; and communications with the rover and flight operators on Earth were successfully established.

Surviving the cold nights at Mars, autonomously charging itself with its solar panel, unlocking and spinning the rotor blades were also monitored by the team here on Earth before Ingenuity took off and landed, logging a total 39.1 seconds of flight on Mars.

You wouldn¡¯t believe what I just saw.

More images and video to come...#MarsHelicopterhttps://t.co/PLapgbHeZU pic.twitter.com/mbiOGx4tJZ

¡ª NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) April 19, 2021

¡°Over the next three sols, the helicopter team will receive and analyze all data and imagery from the test and formulate a plan for the second experimental test flight, scheduled for no earlier than April 22,¡± NASA said in a statement. ¡°If the helicopter survives the second flight test, the Ingenuity team will consider how best to expand the flight profile.¡±