NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity shifts into new operational test phase
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity shifts into new operational test phase

Science

Reuters
01 May, 2021, 12:55 pm
Last modified: 01 May, 2021, 01:03 pm

Related News

  • Boeing's Starliner capsule docks with space station in uncrewed flight test
  • End of the line nears for NASA InSight Mars lander
  • NASA shares stunning images of neighbouring galaxy using new space telescope
  • Four planets line up for celestial event today; This is how you spot them
  • NASA delays final test for moon shot

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity shifts into new operational test phase

The US space agency announced on Friday that Ingenuity is shifting from a pure proof-of-concept, technology demonstration mode to a more ambitious mission gauging how aerial scouting and other functions might benefit future scientific exploration of the Red Planet

Reuters
01 May, 2021, 12:55 pm
Last modified: 01 May, 2021, 01:03 pm
FILE PHOTO: The shadow of NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity is seen during its second flight, captured by its black-and-white navigation camera April 22, 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: The shadow of NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity is seen during its second flight, captured by its black-and-white navigation camera April 22, 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS

After exceeding all expectations with its initial four test flights, the first ever by an aircraft over the surface of another planet, NASA's tiny Mars robot helicopter Ingenuity is ready for graduation.

The US space agency announced on Friday that Ingenuity is shifting from a pure proof-of-concept, technology demonstration mode to a more ambitious mission gauging how aerial scouting and other functions might benefit future scientific exploration of the Red Planet.

Ingenuity's 30-day planned project extension was outlined during a briefing from its mission control center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, where the twin-rotor aircraft was designed and built.

The new "operational demonstration" phase of the 4-pound (1.8 kg), solar-powered chopper began with its fourth takeoff on a nearly two-minute flight Friday morning,

Data returned from Ingenuity later in the day showed that it covered a round-trip distance of 872 feet (266 meters) - roughly the length of three American football fields - at a speed of almost 8 miles per hour (3.5 meters per second).

The helicopter flew at height of about 16 feet (5 meters), considered ideal for the ground-surveillance work it was performing while aloft and matching the altitude of its second and third flights.

The latest outing topped the speed and distance records set on Sunday by flight No. 3, which went farther and faster than the test flights conducted on Earth.

By comparison, Ingenuity's very first 39-second flight on Mars on April 19 climbed just 10 feet (3 meters) high, hovered in place briefly and descended straight back down for landing.

While humble in terms of mere metrics, NASA likened the achievement to the Wright Brothers' historic first controlled flight of their motor-driven airplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.

For NASA, the challenge was powering an aircraft in the ultra-thin air of Mars, whose atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth's, making it especially difficult to generate aerodynamic lift. To compensate engineers equipped Ingenuity with rotor blades that are larger and spin far more rapidly than would be needed on Earth.

The miniature helicopter hitched a ride to Mars strapped to the belly of the NASA science rover Perseverance, a six-wheeled astrobiology lab that landed on Feb. 18 in a vast basin called Jezero Crater after a nearly seven-month journey through space.

Except for a computer software glitch that has twice delayed Ingenuity flights, the rotorcraft has operated flawlessly, meeting all technical objectives in its first three flights on Mars, said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at JPL.

"And now it's like Ingenuity is graduating, from a tech-demo phase to the new ops-demo phase," she said.

On its latest jaunt, Ingenuity snapped 60 black-and-white images and several color photos of the Martian surface while buzzing over the planet's reddish-orange landscape.

The pictures will be fashioned into three-dimensional digital elevation maps for use in selecting a suitable new takeoff and landing zone for later flights.

Similar tracking operations could also be used to help mission managers conduct low-altitude science observations of sites not easily reached by a rover, and to scout for preferred rover routes to various surface destinations.

The next flight, No. 5, will send Ingenuity on a one-way trip to a new "air field" in two or three weeks as engineers continue to press the helicopter beyond its design limits, Aung said. However, mission managers will probably not push the aircraft quite so hard as they would have otherwise without its new "ops-demo" mission, she told reporters.

Meanwhile, JPL will continue preparing Perseverance for its primary mission, a search for traces of fossilized microorganisms in Jezero Crater. Scientists expect to begin collecting Martian rock samples there in July.

Top News / World+Biz

NASA / Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • From the left, Dr Mustafa K Mujeri, Dr Zahid Hussain, Sayema Haque Bidisha and Dr Mohammed Abu Eusuf. Illustration: TBS
    How to shield people from price shocks
  • File Photo: State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid/UNB
    Russia has offered to sell crude oil to Bangladesh: Nasrul
  • PM for enhancing financial cooperation to improve regional crisis management
    PM for enhancing financial cooperation to improve regional crisis management

MOST VIEWED

  • Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule launches aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on a second un-crewed test flight to the International Space Station, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. May 19, 2022. REUTERS/Steve Nesius
    Boeing's Starliner capsule docks with space station in uncrewed flight test
  • Photo: AFP
    End of the line nears for NASA InSight Mars lander
  • This is the first image of Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A* for short), the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array which linked together radio observatories across the planet to form a single "Earth-sized" virtual telescope. The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun. EHT Collaboration/National Science Foundation/Handout via REUTERS
    Scientists unveil image of 'gentle giant' black hole at Milky Way's center
  • Picture: Courtesy
    Rice researchers identify adapted breeding lines for Bangladesh ecosystems
  • This combination of images provided by NASA shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, seen by the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, left, and the new James Webb Space Telescope.(NASA via AP)
    NASA shares stunning images of neighbouring galaxy using new space telescope
  • This artist?s concept released October 30, 2017 shows a black hole with an accretion disk - a flat structure of material orbiting the black hole ? and a jet of hot gas, called plasma. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS
    Black hole hunters cast gaze at center of the Milky Way galaxy

Related News

  • Boeing's Starliner capsule docks with space station in uncrewed flight test
  • End of the line nears for NASA InSight Mars lander
  • NASA shares stunning images of neighbouring galaxy using new space telescope
  • Four planets line up for celestial event today; This is how you spot them
  • NASA delays final test for moon shot

Features

Asus Zenbook 14 Flip OLED: A touch of brilliance to your life

Asus Zenbook 14 Flip OLED: A touch of brilliance to your life

1h | Brands
Are Focallure gel masks worth the hype?

Are Focallure gel masks worth the hype?

7m | Brands
Illustration: TBS

‘The move to introduce DVS has changed the entire spectrum of financial auditing’

1h | Panorama
At present, 80% of the umbrella market is dominated by Chinese products. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

The canopy of change: How Chinese umbrellas drove out Bangla Chhatas 

3h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Photo: TBS

Can Sri Lanka bounce back?

2h | Videos
How to apply for a job at Oxfam

How to apply for a job at Oxfam

3h | Videos
Investors, public to suffer from electricity price hike

Investors, public to suffer from electricity price hike

14h | Videos
Health benefits of summer fruits

Health benefits of summer fruits

16h | Videos

Most Read

1
Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
Bangladesh

Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge

2
A packet of US five-dollar bills is inspected at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
Banking

Dollar hits Tk100 mark in open market

3
PK Halder: How a scamster rose from humble beginnings to a Tk11,000cr empire
Crime

PK Halder: How a scamster rose from humble beginnings to a Tk11,000cr empire

4
Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi
Bangladesh

Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi

5
BSEC launches probe against Abul Khayer Hero and allies
Stocks

BSEC launches probe against Abul Khayer Hero and allies

6
The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter
Industry

The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab