Nowhere on Earth can we fully replicate the conditions on Mars. Special facilities can re-create certain elements with enough fidelity to test specific scenarios, but each is limited, leading to a plethora of platforms and scenarios required to span the conditions of Mars. In our prior post, “The Right Stuff,” the focus was using Ingenuity on Mars to test our macro capabilities: flying higher and faster, landing at various speeds, and generally expanding the flight envelope to retire the associated risk for future Martian rotorcraft. The holy grail, however, is understanding the microscale ..read more

On Saturday, Jan. 20, communications were reestablished between Ingenuity and NASA’s Perseverance rover. The Ingenuity team has determined the helicopter is power-positive and is sitting vertically on the surface. Next steps include running further diagnostic checks, commanding Ingenuity to take photos of its location on the surface, and performing a spin test.  ..read more

On Jan. 18, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter executed its 72nd flight at the Red Planet. The flight was designed as a quick pop-up vertical flight to check out the helicopter’s systems, following an unplanned early landing during its previous flight. Data Ingenuity sent to the Perseverance rover (which acts as a relay between the helicopter and Earth) during the flight indicates it successfully climbed to its assigned maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters). During its planned descent, communications between the helicopter and rover terminated early, prior to touchdown. The Ingenuity team is ..read more

Flight 72 Expected flight date: 01/18/2024 Horizontal flight distance: 0 meters Expected flight time: 32.08 seconds Flight altitude: 12 meters Heading: NA Max flight speed: 0 m/s Goal of flight: Pop-up Flight - Localization Airfield: Same ..read more

Flight 71 Expected flight date: 01/06/2024 Horizontal flight distance: 358.3 meters Expected flight time: 124.92 seconds Flight altitude: 12 meters Heading: West Max flight speed: 7 m/s Goal of flight: Reposition Helicopter Airfield: Same ..read more

Flight 70 Expected flight date: 12/22/2023 Horizontal flight distance: 258.735 meters Expected flight time: 129.37 seconds Flight altitude: 12 meters Heading: West Max flight speed: 3 m/s Goal of flight: Reposition Helicopter Airfield: Same ..read more

Trailblazer Long before Ingenuity’s historic first flight on Mars, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and their collaborators at AeroVironment Inc. were already moving the boundaries of human knowledge and aeronautic achievement with testing here on Earth. Flights by an Ingenuity prototype in 2016 showed that controlled, aerodynamic flight was possible in a Mars-like atmosphere for the first time. These flights were made possible by JPL’s 25-foot thermal-vacuum chamber, which is capable of replicating environments with a wide variety of temperatures, pressur ..read more

Flight 69 Expected flight date: 12/19/2023 Horizontal flight distance: 702.37 meters Expected flight time: 131.10 seconds Flight altitude: 16 meters Heading: East-northeast Max flight speed: 10 m/s Goal of flight: Flight Test Airfield: Same ..read more

Flight 67 Expected flight date: 12/02/2023 Horizontal flight distance: 392.84 meters Expected flight time: 133.57 seconds Flight altitude: 12 meters Heading: Northwest Max flight speed: 5.3 m/s Goal of flight: Reposition the helicopter Airfield: New ..read more

Flight 65 Expected flight date: 11/01/2023 Horizontal flight distance: 7 meters Expected flight time: 48.26 seconds Flight altitude: 10 meters Heading: West Max flight speed: 1 m/s Goal of flight: Reposition the helicopter Airfield: Same ..read more