The Daily Populous Sunday February 21st, 2021 day edition
Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by DonaldWillKillUsAll

(CNN) The Ingenuity helicopter, sidekick and traveling companion of NASA's Perseverance rover, has checked in with a good report and is "operating as expected," according to the agency.

If successful, Ingenuity will be the first helicopter to fly on another planet, leading to an "extraterrestrial Wright Brothers moment," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The rover landed safely on the surface of Mars Thursday after launching from Earth on July 30. Perseverance has already sent back an impressive set of images to show that she's safe and ready to go through a "checkout" phase before starting her journey across the surface.

Now, the mission team has heard directly from the helicopter for the first time -- and it's good news.

Ingenuity is currently tucked up beneath the rover and attached to Perseverance's belly. The rover is about the size of an SUV, while the helicopter only weighs about 4 pounds.

The helicopter was able to phone home via the rover by sending data back through NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which acts as a communications relay between Mars and Earth and has been orbiting the red planet since 2006.

Ingenuity is comfortable where it is and isn't letting go of the rover anytime soon for a test flight. The helicopter will remain snug with the rover for 30 to 60 days.

"Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter I carry, is working as expected. I'm currently charging it, but once I set it down, it'll rely solely on its solar panels. If it survives the brutally cold Martian nights, the team will attempt flight," read a tweet from the Perseverance Twitter account.

Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter I carry, is working as expected. I'm currently charging it, but once I set it down, it'll rely solely on its solar panels. If it survives the brutally cold Martian nights, the team will attempt flight. https://t.co/8pksN06ZwP #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/80kEoww0QU — NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 20, 2021

"There are two big-ticket items we are looking for in the data: the state of charge of Ingenuity's batteries as well as confirmation the base station is operating as designed, commanding heaters to turn off and on to keep the helicopter's electronics within an expected range," said Tim Canham, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter operations lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.

"Both appear to be working great. With this positive report, we will move forward with (Saturday's) charge of the helicopter's batteries."

Ingenuity needs to power up and store energy so it can keep itself warm and maintain other vital functions during the cold Martian nights once the rover deposits the helicopter on the red planet's surface. Then, Ingenuity will be on its own.

And it will need to withstand nights where temperatures can drop as low as negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit. As Elton John famously sings in "Rocket Man," Mars is, indeed, as cold as hell.

Maintaining function and good battery health will be critical if the helicopter is to survive the frigid Martian climate before attempting any test flights later on. A total of five test flights are planned over a 31-day period once the rover finds the right "helipad," or nice flat spot, to deposit Ingenuity.

As long as Ingenuity is attached to Perseverance, the helicopter can give its batteries a boost. The helicopter has six lithium-ion batteries. Once it has detached from the rover, those batteries will be charged by the helicopter's solar panel.

The first flight of Ingenuity will be short, only about 20 seconds of hovering off the ground. But it will be a historic moment. Much like the very first Martian rover, Sojourner, Ingenuity is a technology demonstration -- an experiment. Proving that this concept can work could lead to the development of rotorcraft that could act as scouts for both rovers and human missions to Mars in the future.

If that first flight is successful, "over 90% of the project's goals will have been achieved," according to NASA.

Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars This is the first color image released from Perseverance on the Martian surface. Rocks can be seen scattered around the landing site in Jezero Crater. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars The Twitter account for the Perseverance rover released this image. "I love rocks," the tweet said. "Look at these right next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story do they tell? Can't wait to find out." Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars Members of NASA mission control celebrate after receiving confirmation that the Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars on Thursday, February 18. Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars This image, from a camera on Perseverance's "jetpack" during the spacecraft's descent stage, captures the rover in midair just before its wheels touched down. This perspective has never been seen before on previous missions. Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars President Joe Biden watches coverage of the rover landing from the White House. "Congratulations to NASA and everyone whose hard work made Perseverance's historic landing possible," he said in a tweet . "Today proved once again that with the power of science and American ingenuity, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility." Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars Perseverance sent this image back shortly after landing on Mars. The rover will explore Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake that existed 3.9 billion years ago, and search for microfossils in the rocks and soil there. Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars The Empire State Building in New York is illuminated in red on Tuesday, February 16, to mark Perseverance's scheduled landing on the red planet. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying the Perseverance rover, launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in July 2020. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars Engineers perform tests on the rover inside Kennedy Space Center in April 2020. The rover was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise on a spin table to determine its center of gravity. Establishing the rover's center of gravity helped ensure the spacecraft would land on Mars as calculated. Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars This piece of hardware, designed at NASA's Johnson Space Center, will carry the first spacesuit materials to Mars to see how they hold up. It will also carry a piece of a Martian meteorite back to the surface of the planet so scientists can observe how it changes over time. Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Photos from Perseverance's mission to Mars NASA workers install the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, aka MOXIE, into the chassis of the Perseverance rover in March 2019. This experiment will attempt to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. This could help NASA scientists learn how to produce not only rocket fuel on Mars, but also oxygen that could be used during future human exploration of the red planet. Hide Caption 11 of 11

Subsequent flights could last longer and test out more of the helicopter's capabilities. It carries two cameras that can provide aerial images. Perseverance will also train its cameras on Ingenuity to capture the sights and sounds, including video, of these historic flights.

"We are in uncharted territory, but this team is used to that," said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL, in a statement. "Just about every milestone from here through the end of our flight demonstration program will be a first, and each has to succeed for us to go on to the next. We'll enjoy this good news for the moment, but then we have to get back to work."

Oclure on February 20th, 2021 at 17:16 UTC »

Flight time is only 90 seconds for 2 main reasons. First the blades have to spin really fast to acheive any kind of lift in the thin atmosphere on Mars. Second most the power solar panels collect will go towards heating the drone so it doesn't freeze over at night, only the left over power from this can be saved up on the batteries for the occasional flight.

VenomXTs on February 20th, 2021 at 17:11 UTC »

I have been excited for this for years... Hope it goes well and we get to see something of it or from it.

op_spiff on February 20th, 2021 at 17:07 UTC »

how often will this thing fly considering flight time is ‚only‘ 90s?

Edit: Wow this sub is incredibly supportive, thanks for all the infos!