NASA uses two worlds to test future Mars helicopter designs

For the primary time in historical past, two planets have been residence to testing future plane designs. On this world, a brand new rotor that might be used with next-generation Mars helicopters was not too long ago examined at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, spinning at near-supersonic speeds (0.95 Mach). In the meantime, the company’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has achieved new altitude and airspeed information on the Purple Planet within the title of experimental flight testing.

“Our next-generation Mars helicopter testing has actually had one of the best of each worlds,” stated Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s challenge supervisor and supervisor for the Mars Pattern Restoration Helicopters. “Right here on Earth, you might have all of the instrumentation and hands-on immediacy you possibly can hope for whereas testing new plane parts. On Mars, you might have the actual off-world situations you possibly can by no means actually re-create right here on Earth.” That features a whisper-thin ambiance and considerably much less gravity than on Earth.

The following-generation carbon fiber rotor blades being examined on Earth are nearly 4 inches (greater than 10 centimeters) longer than Ingenuity’s, with better energy and a special design. NASA thinks these blades might allow greater, extra succesful Mars helicopters. The problem is that because the blade suggestions method supersonic speeds, vibration-causing turbulence can shortly get out of hand.

To discover a space large enough to create a Martian ambiance on Earth, engineers appeared to JPL’s 25-foot huge, 85-foot-tall (8-meter-by-26-meter) space simulator—a spot the place Surveyor, Voyager, and Cassini obtained their first style of space-like environments. For 3 weeks in September, a crew monitored sensors, meters, and cameras because the blades endured run after run at ever-higher speeds and better pitch angles.

“We spun our blades as much as 3,500 rpm, which is 750 revolutions per minute quicker than the Ingenuity blades have gone,” stated Tyler Del Sesto, Pattern Restoration Helicopter deputy take a look at conductor at JPL. “These extra environment friendly blades are actually greater than a hypothetical train. They’re able to fly.”

At across the identical time, and about 100 million miles (161 million kilometers) away, Ingenuity was being commanded to attempt issues the Mars Helicopter crew by no means imagined they might get to do.

Fourth rock flight testing

Ingenuity was initially slated to fly not more than 5 occasions. With its first flight getting into the mission logbook greater than two-and-a-half years in the past, the helicopter has exceeded its deliberate 30-day mission by 32 occasions and has flown 66 occasions. Each time Ingenuity goes airborne, it covers new floor, providing a perspective no earlier planetary mission might obtain. However these days, Staff Ingenuity has been taking their solar-powered rotorcraft out for a spin like by no means earlier than.

“Over the previous 9 months, now we have doubled our max airspeed and altitude, elevated our charge of vertical and horizontal acceleration, and even discovered to land slower,” stated Travis Brown, Ingenuity’s chief engineer at JPL. “The envelope enlargement offers invaluable knowledge that can be utilized by mission designers for future Mars helicopters.”

Restricted by out there power and motor-temperature issues, Ingenuity flights normally final round two to 3 minutes. Though the helicopter can cowl extra floor in a single flight by flying quicker, flying too quick can confuse the onboard navigation system. The system makes use of a digital camera that acknowledges rocks and different floor options as they transfer by its discipline of view. If these options whiz by too quick, the system can lose its manner.

So, to attain the next most floor pace, the crew sends instructions for Ingenuity to fly at larger altitudes (directions are despatched to the helicopter earlier than every flight), which retains options in view longer. Flight 61 established a brand new altitude file of 78.7 toes (24 meters) because it checked out Martian wind patterns. With Flight 62, Ingenuity set a pace file of twenty-two.3 mph (10 meters per second)—and scouted a location for the Perseverance rover’s science crew.

The crew has additionally been experimenting with Ingenuity’s touchdown pace. The helicopter was designed to contact the floor at a comparatively brisk 2.2 mph (1 mps) so its onboard sensors might simply verify landing and shut down the rotors earlier than it might bounce again into the air.

A helicopter that lands extra slowly might be designed with lighter touchdown gear. So, on Flights 57, 58, and 59 they gave it a whirl, demonstrating that Ingenuity might land at speeds 25% slower than these at which it was initially designed to land.

All this Martian Chuck Yeager-ing shouldn’t be over. In December, after solar conjunction, Ingenuity is anticipated to carry out two high-speed flights, throughout which it is going to execute a particular set of pitch-and-roll angles designed to measure its efficiency.

“The info will probably be extraordinarily helpful in fine-tuning our aero-mechanical fashions of how rotorcraft behave on Mars,” stated Brown. “On Earth, such testing is normally carried out within the first few flights. However that is not the place we’re flying. You must be a bit extra cautious while you’re working that distant from the closest restore store, as a result of you aren’t getting any do-overs.”