At 2200 rpm, this speed was only about 70% of the speed of sound. This can create sonic booms which will almost certainly disrupt the drone’s aerodynamics. The team had to ensure that the propellers will not break the sound barrier. However, there was also an upper limit to the speed at which the propellers can rotate. This was a design necessity because of the requirement for a propeller with a large diameter. In contrast to the usual quadcopters, the Ingenuity only had two propellers that rotated in opposing directions. Moreover, the propellers had to be bigger and stiffer than the propellers of drones that were typically used on our planet. This was a very powerful (and noisy) drone. To put that into context, our usual helicopters has propellers that rotate at 500 rpm. The propellers of Ingenuity were designed to hit a maximum speed of 2200 rpm. Given the density of air, the drone had to have very powerful propellers. One of the main challenges that the team had to tackle was how the propellers can generate lift despite the thin atmosphere of Mars. Instead, we’ll focus on the design elements that address the unique challenges of flight on Mars. With many years of development, there are probably details on the design of the Ingenuity that we cannot cover here. Footage from the flight was then received about three hours later. The short flight only consisted of taking off, lifting to an altitude of ten feet, hovering for almost 40 seconds, and landing. On April 19, 2021, the Ingenuity successfully made its first flight. Using the data and performance of the Ingenuity, the scientists at NASA can then proceed to make more sophisticated versions of the helicopter that can fulfill the actual purpose of being a scout drone. More than anything, the Ingenuity was meant to be a tech demonstration. It was only in April 2020 that the helicopter would be officially given the name “Ingenuity” – or “Ginny” for short. After a series of flight tests, it was decided that the helicopter would be mounted on the underbelly of the Perseverance rover. In 2018, the project received $23 million of federal funding, just in time for the helicopter to be deployed for the Mars 2020 mission. Through the years, prototypes of the Ingenuity helicopter were developed and tested on simulated Mars topography. It was meant to be a “scout” unit for the Mars rover that can help identify safe driving routes. The initial phases of the design of the Ingenuity started in 2014. This also meant that the Ingenuity had to be one of a kind. This heavily implies that there is currently no helicopter on the planet that can handle the lack of atmosphere on Mars. Even record-breaking attempts for aircraft on the Earth topped out at only about 85,000 feet. This is well into the Earth’s stratosphere and more than ten times the allowed altitude for commercial aircraft. The force of this lift is directly proportional to both the speed of rotation of the propellers and the density of the atmosphere.Īnother way of framing this challenge is that the atmosphere in Mars is equivalent to the atmosphere on Earth at an altitude of about 22 miles. Similarly, shifting the angle of the drone or helicopter gives it the propulsion to move in any direction. Why is air density such a crucial factor in flight? In rotor-powered flight, the propellers essentially cut through the air and redirect it downwards. A more useful metric of this is the density of air on Mars, which only about 1% of the density of air on the Earth. What makes drone flight on Mars so difficult and why is the Ingenuity helicopter special? Is there any drone on Earth that can compare to its design? The challenges of flight in Mars atmosphereįlight on Mars is difficult because of just one thing – the atmosphere in Mars is a lot thinner compared to that of the Earth. The Ingenuity isn’t just an ordinary drone – it was designed specifically for this mission. What is not very apparent is how vast the challenges that had to be overcome before this feat could be achieved. With this development, NASA has paved the way for faster exploration on Mars and other planets. The big news today is that NASA has achieved the first powered flight from the surface on Mars with the Ingenuity helicopter.
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