NASA landed its Perseverance Mars rover Thursday, and along with it is a helicopter drone that could set a new milestone in aviation history.
XPerseverance, or Percy for short, is NASA's biggest Mars rover to date, about the size of an SUV. Its mission is also the most ambitious so far, as it's expected to have the best chance of discovering signs of life. A future mission is supposed to bring samples back to Earth.
Perseverance landed safely just before 4 p.m. ET and will spend at least one Martian year, which is equal to 687 Earth days, in the Jezero crater.
Minutes later, the Mars rover sent the first image from the planet's surface. Steve Jurczyk, the acting NASA administrator, said the mission proves that NASA can land larger payloads on Mars.
"This is just an incredible mission because of the science and the technology and caching samples for a Mars sample return mission," he said. "That will be an amazing mission, the first-round trip to Mars and back and bringing those samples cached by Perseverance back to Earth to examine with state of the art equipment in our laboratories here on Earth."
Maxar Technologies (MAXR) built a new high-tech arm that the Mars rover will use to scoop up rocks and soil that scientists hope will eventually return to Earth via a future retrieval mission.
Northrop Grumman (NOC) made an inertial measurement unit that provides attitude and acceleration information and has been on all previous Mars rovers.
"The mission's just started," said Michael Watkins, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We built the mission not to land, but actually to drive and get the samples and do other technology demonstrations."
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Mars Rover's Drone Payload
While Perseverance is focused on digging in the dirt, a helicopter called Ingenuity has its own mission. Tomorrow, NASA will turn on the helicopter to determine its health.
If successful, it could perform the first controlled flight on another planet.
NASA's Joint Propulsion Laboratory teamed up with AeroVironment (AVAV) to build the drone, which stands 19 inches high with rotor that span about four feet.
NASA says that the helicopter will be solar-powered and be able to recharge on its own. It also features a wireless communication system and will be equipped with two cameras, one in color and one in black and white.
But flying on Earth isn't like flying on Mars. The air on Mars has just 1% of the density as Earth's air, making it harder for the spinning blades to create lift. So, Ingenuity has to be light, at just four pounds, with rotor blades that spin 5-10 times faster than helicopters on Earth do.
Mars is also bone-chillingly frigid with nights hitting minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA data. That will put stress on Ingenuity's parts.
"This is a technology demonstration and a pathfinder for future larger rotorcraft, future missions that will carry much larger instruments," said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager. "On this mission, we're not doing any science. We're concentrating on engineering data, how well the vehicle performed."
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Ingenuity's Flight Plan
The drone will not fly immediately after the Perseverance Mars rover lands. It must first deploy safely from the Mars rover's belly, autonomously stay warm through the Martian nights, and autonomously charge itself with its solar panel. Lockheed Martin (LMT) provided the Mars Helicopter Delivery System, which deploys Ingenuity for flight, as well as Perseverance's aeroshell, which will keeps the rover cool through space and the Martian atmosphere.
The helicopter could fly a few weeks after Perseverance lands. If the Ingenuity succeeds in its first flight, it will attempt up to four other test flights within a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) window.
The five planned flights will have incremental difficulty. The main objective is to just get the legs off the ground and then come down again. Most of the flights will be 3-5 meters off the surface at speed of a few meters per second.
NASA hopes Ingenuity will help prove the concept for future Mars helicopters to be used for scouting, carrying payloads, and exploring areas that are too dangerous for a rover to enter.
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Mars Rover Stocks
AeroVironment shares fell 4.7% to close at 123.48 on the stock market today. Maxar lost 6.3%, Lockheed rose 0.3%, and Northrop gained 0.2%. Boeing (BA), whose United Launch Alliance joint venture with Lockheed put Perseverance into space, eased 3.3%.
While Ingenuity tests the bounds of flight and Perseverance searches for life, China's Tianwen-1, which reached Martian orbit last week, is set to touch down on Mars this spring.
The mission is China's first to Mars, but little is known about the mission as the China National Space Administration has kept its goals under wraps. The rover is expected to explore Utopia Planitia, the largest impact crater on Mars.
The U.S. and China's rover missions come as the United Arab Emirates put its spacecraft, Hope, into Mars' orbit last week. Hope will remain circling the planet as it looks to study Mars' transformation from a planet with life into a barren desert land.
Follow Gillian Rich on Twitter for space news and more.
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