Summary Reader Response Draft #3

 

The article “Mars helicopter Ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on Red Planet” (Gohd, 2021) talks 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 colour 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 duration is short due to the size of its rotary blades and its battery capacity is insufficient due to it requiring almost all its power to perform basic tasks.

The Ingenuity’s flight duration is dismal because of its short rotary blades. 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 contrast, its Earthly counterpart can fly 1524 meters up in the air for around several hours (Brown, 2020). Ingenuity’s flight duration pales in comparison to standard helicopters. The Ingenuity’s rotor diameter directly corresponds to how well it can hover. A larger rotor diameter would mean a much longer and energy-efficient flight capability (Krossblade Aerospace, 2022). If the Ingenuity had longer rotary blades, it could have been able to fly for a longer period.

The Ingenuity has some issues with its battery capacity as it needs to use up almost all of its power just to carry out basic operations. 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). According to NASA’s flight log (NASA, 2022), it is using solar panel charged lithium-ion batteries which provides it enough power to fly for 90 seconds a day. The Ingenuity also uses up 10Wh (Watt hour) of power per flight. This would leave the Ingenuity with approximately 5Wh of power remaining after keeping itself warm. This means that the Ingenuity is only getting by with its current battery capacity. If its collector component was made lighter, it could allow the battery to be more energy-dense (ScienceDaily, 2020). A lighter battery would mean that more batteries could be docked on the Ingenuity for the same weight, leading to a higher overall battery capacity.

Despite having a short flight duration and limited battery capacity 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. Although the Ingenuity could have stayed in flight longer with longer rotary blades and a larger battery capacity, the mission is still a success and has been dubbed the “Wright Brothers” moment of NASA (Gorman, 2021).

The ingenuity is a helicopter sent by NASA that was able to prove that flight was possible on Mars. Its 1.2-meter 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 size of its rotary blades. Almost all its battery life is used up simply to stay warm in the night and fly for just 90 seconds. Its small rotor diameter also limits how long it can hover in the air for. Due to this, its flight capabilities pale in comparison to helicopters on Earth which devalues this feat. However, with longer rotor blades and a larger battery capacity the Ingenuity could have performed better.

 

 

References:

 

Brown, A. (2022, January 26). How far can a helicopter fly (Flight range, Max distance). Flyush – Fly Us Here. https://flyush.com/how-far-can-a-helicopter-fly/

 

Frost, D. (2021, April 19). The Mars helicopter ingenuity: A deep dive into its 6-pack. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-deep-dive-its-6-pack-damien-frost/

 

Gohd, C. (2021, May 22). Mars helicopter ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on Red Planet. Space.com. https://www.space.com/ingenuity-mars-helicopter-perseverance-rover

 

Gorman, S. (2021, April 19). NASA scores Wright brothers moment with first helicopter flight on Mars. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/nasas-mars-helicopter-makes-history-with-successful-flight-red-planet-2021-04-19/

 

Krossblade Airspace. (2022). Disc loading and Hover efficiency — Krossblade aerospace systems. Krossblade Aerospace Systems. https://www.krossblade.com/disc-loading-and-hover-efficiency

 

NASA. (2022). Ingenuity postpones flights until August. NASA Mars Exploration. https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/392/ingenuity-postpones-flights-until-august/

 

ScienceDaily. (2020, October 9). A new approach boosts lithium-ion battery efficiency and puts out fires, too: Adding polymers and fireproofing to a battery's current collectors makes it lighter, safer and about 20% more efficient. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201015111738.htm