A Summary and Thesis
The article "Mars helicopter Ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on the Red Planet", Gohd (2021), is about NASA assessing the possibility of conducting flight on Mars with the Ingenuity helicopter as well as the challenges faced due to Mars’ environment.
The Ingenuity landed in Jezero Crater along with the Perseverance Rover, where scientists suspect it could contain information about past life on the surface of Mars. With Mars’ atmospheric volume being more than a hundred times thinner than Earth's, taking off was a challenge. In addition, wind, dust storms, solar power management, and keeping the craft warm through the chilly Martian nights were other challenges presented in the article.
On its second flight, the craft demonstrated its capacity to take off and turn while in the air in order to direct its color camera in various directions. It is equipped with carbon-fibre blades measuring 1.2 meters across and spins at 2500 rpm. It is a small helicopter weighing 0.68 kilograms and standing 48 centimetres tall with solar panels to recharge itself. As the flights were more successful than anticipated, NASA declared that the helicopter's mission would be extended to looking for a new place to fly and taking pictures with its camera capabilities. Although its current capabilities are sufficient for its mission, its flight altitude is ineffective and its battery life is poor.
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The Ingenuity’s flight altitude is dismal. According to the article, the highlight of Ingenuity’s lift-off capability is that its fourth flight lasted around 117 seconds while reaching an altitude of 5 meters. Although this result is impressive by Martian standards given the extremely thin atmosphere, from a practical standpoint it is quite lacking. In comparison, its earthly counterpart can fly 1524 meters in the air for several hours. Ingenuity’s flight duration is short and acutely limited.
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The Ingenuity has some issues with its battery life as it relies on powering its internal heater to keep itself warm during the chilling Martian nights. Keeping itself warm requires a huge portion of its battery life. According to the article "The Mars Helicopter Ingenuity: A deep dive into its 6-pack" , the Ingenuity relies on a lithium-ion battery pack to keep itself warm. It has 36Wh of energy available per day, but 21Wh of it is used to keep itself warm during the nights (Frost, 2021).
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The Ingenuity also has a limited battery life. According to NASA’s flight log (NASA, 2022), it is using solar panel charged lithium-ion batteries, which provide it enough power to fly for 90 seconds a day. The Ingenuity also uses up 10Wh (watt hour) of power per flight. which is just sufficient with its approximately 15Wh of power remaining to keep itself warm. This means that the Ingenuity is only getting by with its battery capacity as it hampers its operations.
Counter Argument
Despite having limited altitude reach and a short battery life restricting its operations, the Ingenuity has still accomplished its main goal of proving the possibility of flight on Mars and has taken pictures of the red planet in mid-air. This is the first time a craft has been controlled remotely from 119.96 million kilometres away and has succeeded. The mission is still a success and has been dubbed the "Wright Brothers" moment of NASA (Gorman, 2021).
Conclusion
The ingenuity of a helicopter sent by NASA that was able to prove that flight was possible on Mars. Its 1.2m rotary blades were able to successfully carry it off the ground. This success led to NASA giving the Ingenuity more tasks, such as taking pictures while in flight. Although this is a huge accomplishment, its flight is limited by its battery issues as well as the thin atmosphere of Mars. Due to this, its flight capabilities pale in comparison to helicopters on Earth, which devalues this feat.
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