JPL’s Ingenuity helicopter is making ready for the fiftieth flight of its 5-flight mission to Mars. Flight 49, which passed off final weekend, was its quickest and highest but—the little helicopter flew 282 meters at an altitude of 16 meters, reaching a high velocity of 6.50 meters per second. Not a nasty efficiency for a tech demo that was imagined to be terminated two years in the past.
From right here, issues are solely going to get tougher for Ingenuity. Because the Perseverance rover continues its climb up Jezero crater’s historic river delta, Ingenuity is making an attempt its finest to scout forward. However, the winding hills and valleys make it troublesome for the helicopter to speak with the rover, and thru the rover, to its crew again on Earth. And there isn’t loads of time or room to spare, as a result of Ingenuity isn’t allowed to fly too near Perseverance, which means that if the rover ever catches as much as the helicopter, the helicopter could need to be left behind for the rover’s personal security. This high-stakes race between the helicopter scout and the science rover will proceed for kilometers.
“Two years in, 10 kilometers flown, and we’re properly over an hour now within the skies of Mars.”
—Teddy Tzanetos, NASA
For the Ingenuity crew, this new mode of operation was each a problem and a chance. This was nothing new for people who’ve managed to maintain this 30-day expertise demo alive and wholesome and productive for years, all from a pair hundred million kilometers away. IEEE Spectrum spoke with Ingenuity Crew Lead Teddy Tzanetos at JPL final week about whether or not flying on Mars is ever routine, how they upgraded Ingenuity for its prolonged mission, and what the helicopter’s success means for the way forward for airborne exploration and science on Mars.
IEEE Spectrum: Is 50 flights on Mars a milestone for you people, or are issues routine sufficient now that you simply’re taking a look at it as simply one other flight?
Teddy Tzanetos: It’s vastly significant. We’ll come again to the routine query in a second, however it’s very significant for all of us. Once we hit 10 after which 25 it was huge, however 50 is a fairly severe quantity now that we’re 10X our preliminary flight rely. Two years in, 10 kilometers flown, and we’re properly over an hour now within the skies of Mars. So hitting flight 50, it’s an enormous factor—we’re in all probability going to arrange a contented hour and have an enormous celebration for the crew.
Are you able to discuss among the new challenges that Ingenuity has been going through because it makes its means up Jezero Crater’s river delta together with the Perseverance rover?
Tzanetos: The core of the problem right here is that the paradigm has modified. If you take a look at the primary yr of Ingenuity’s prolonged operations, we had been nonetheless within the Three Forks space, the place the bottom was flat. We may get line of sight from the helicopter to the rover from tons of and tons of of meters away. Our longest hyperlink that we established was 1.2 kilometers—a large distance.
After which we began to understand that the rover was going to enter the river delta in like six months. It’s going to begin climbing up by dozens and dozens of meters of elevation change and passing by ravines, and that’s going to begin presenting a telecom concern for us. We knew that it couldn’t be enterprise as normal anymore—if we nonetheless needed to maintain this helicopter mission going, not solely did we have to change the way in which we had been working, however we additionally needed to change the helicopter itself.
“We owe it to everybody who labored on Ingenuity and everybody who will proceed to work on rotorcraft on Mars to try to get all the pieces out of this little spacecraft that we will.”
—Teddy Tzanetos, NASA
This realization culminated in probably the most difficult flight software program improve we’ve ever performed with Ingenuity, which occurred final December. We went into the heart of our algorithms and added two new options. One was the flexibility to detect and react to touchdown hazards from the air, which concerned handing over slightly little bit of autonomy again to Ingenuity, with the flexibility to inform it, “Fly to your terminal waypoint and try to land the place we predict is nice, primarily based off of orbital imagery. However you probably have higher info out of your pictures than what we people had right here on Earth, and also you see a hazard, decide a safer website and land there as an alternative.” In order that’s one big change in what’s occurring now. And we’d like that on the river delta as a result of we’re not flying in a car parking zone—apart from the problem of the elevation change, the terrain is totally different as properly, with extra, bigger rocks that Ingenuity must keep away from.
The second characteristic that we added was to incorporate details about the terrain to Ingenuity’s navigation filter. Once we designed Ingenuity, we assumed we had been solely going to be deployed on the flat terrain of Three Forks. Due to this fact, any change within the laser altimeter measurement we may belief to be an actual change within the movement of the helicopter, or we may no less than filter that into our altitude information. However that’s not the case. Now, as Ingenuity flies, if the altimeter sees an enormous lower in elevation, that might be as a result of the bottom is rising to fulfill us slightly than as a result of we’re transferring down. So since December, we’ve been telling Ingenuity in regards to the elevation profile throughout its supposed flight in order that it is aware of what the bottom is doing beneath it.
Now that each the rover and the helicopter have begun the river delta climb, we’re additionally paying very shut consideration to our telecom hyperlink price range maps. You’ll be able to think about each hill or rise that might occlude the road of sight between the helicopter antenna and the rover antenna may have a huge impact in your telecom hyperlink, and we have now fantastic maps from orbit the place we will decide a possible touchdown level and propagate our radio hyperlink price range calculation throughout that time.
We’re making an attempt to plan these flights as aggressively as we will to guarantee that we keep forward of Perseverance. We don’t need to run the danger of getting a state of affairs the place the rover may have to attend for Ingenuity—that’s not a great factor for anyone. However we additionally need to present worth for the rover by scouting forward, and what we hope to do on Flight 50 is to get some imagery of Belva crater, which is that this lovely huge crater to the north of the place Ingenuity presently is. We’re going to get views that the rover crew wouldn’t be capable to present for the science crew, and it’s actually thrilling for us when there are these moments which are uniquely pushed by Ingenuity’s functionality. We need to go after these, as a result of we need to present that worth whereas she’s nonetheless wholesome. Whereas we nonetheless can. We owe it to everybody who labored on Ingenuity and everybody who will proceed to work on rotorcraft on Mars to try to get all the pieces out of this little spacecraft that we will.
“Top-of-the-line hallmarks of expertise success is whenever you don’t understand it, or when it turns into boring. Meaning the expertise is working, and that’s an exquisite feeling.”
—Teddy Tzanetos, NASA
At one level, NASA was very clear that Ingenuity’s mission would come to an finish in order that Perseverance may transfer on to give attention to its major mission. However clearly, Ingenuity remains to be flying, and nonetheless maintaining with the rover. Not solely that, however we’ve heard from a rover driver how useful it’s to have Ingenuity scouting forward. With that in thoughts, as Ingenuity navigates this difficult terrain, will there be any flexibility if one thing doesn’t go fairly proper, or will Perseverance simply go away the helicopter behind?
Tzanetos: We’ve got to take a look at the large image. A very powerful factor at this level is for Perseverance to gather samples and do science. If you happen to take a look at all the pieces that must be performed throughout the entire rover’s science payloads, each sol [Martian day] is valuable. And the helicopter crew understands that.
We’re doing our greatest to grow to be extra environment friendly, and I believe that’s an enormous win that we don’t rejoice sufficient on the Ingenuity crew internally—how far more environment friendly we’re in the present day in comparison with the place we had been two years in the past. Earlier, you talked about flying changing into routine. I believe the crew has succeeded in doing that, and I’m extraordinarily pleased with that accomplishment. Top-of-the-line hallmarks of expertise success is whenever you don’t understand it, or when it turns into boring. Meaning the expertise is working, and that’s an exquisite feeling.
There’s what’s known as a tactical window that we have now between the downlink of the final sol’s exercise and when we have to uplink exercise for the following sol, which is anyplace from 5 to 10 hours. A sure cadence of actions need to happen throughout that window, and we have to move sure checkpoints to get our information uploaded and radiated by the Deep House Community in time. We’ve labored very, very laborious to reduce our footprint on that timeline, whereas additionally being reactive in order that we will transfer rapidly on any last-minute modifications that the rover crew wants us to accommodate. We’ve got to get in, fly, and get out.
Anomalies will occur. That’s simply the character of Mars. However when these moments happen, the helicopter and rover groups again one another up. To be clear, nobody on the helicopter crew desires to trigger a delay for the rover. All of us need the rover to meet its mission, get its samples, and get the science performed. If we have now a severe anomaly, we’ll need to take that one sol at a time. We’re going to strive as laborious as we will to ensure we will preserve pushing this little child so far as we will whereas nonetheless carrying out the core science mission.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter takes off and lands on this video captured on April 19, 2021, by Mastcam-Z, an imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. This video options solely the moments of takeoff and the touchdown—and never footage of the helicopter hovering for about 30 seconds.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
How do you steadiness threat to the helicopter towards exploration and science objectives, or making an attempt new issues like pushing Ingenuity’s flight envelope?
Tzanetos: That’s the enjoyable half! There’s no instruction guide. The best way we do it’s we have now a telephone name with the core individuals on the crew, and everybody simply shares their opinions. The very best precedence for us is getting some good scouting imagery for the scientists and rover drivers—we soar at these alternatives. If we’re flying by a chunk of terrain that isn’t significantly fascinating, that’s after we begin wanting on the flight envelope developments, proper? With flight 49, we’re going increased than we ever had earlier than and flying quicker than we ever have earlier than. That’s not a request from the science neighborhood or the rover planners; that’s coming from our personal inner crew the place we’re making an attempt to launch functionality piece by piece because the flights go on, as a result of each time we get that win, it’s a win for the pattern restoration helicopters. So there’s that ever-present stress to push more durable, push quicker, push increased. And let’s additionally get some fantastic scouting information alongside the way in which after we can.
What have you ever discovered about flying helicopters on Mars from 50 flights, that you’d do not know about when you’d been capable of do exactly 5 flights?
Tzanetos: Tons of issues. Since I simply talked about flying quicker and flying increased, and we’ve now legitimately expanded Ingenuity’s flight envelope. There’s the lifetime argument, which is apparent—this design has lasted for much longer than anybody may have anticipated, even simply by way of elements and workmanship. Every considered one of Ingenuity’s practically a thousand solder joints had been soldered by technicians at JPL who’ve probably the most blessed, exact arms. We’d designed Ingenuity to fly in springtime on Mars, however in the course of the Martian winter, for greater than 200 sols the temperature cycled between 20°C and -90°C and again once more. Ultimately, it bought so chilly that Ingenuity’s battery would die each night time, the heater would cease operating, and all the pieces would freeze. That was a large curveball that we needed to cope with, however due to the workmanship of these individuals, Ingenuity was capable of survive.
“We now have a stake within the floor to say, ‘Off-the-shelf works, we will belief this stuff.’”
—Teddy Tzanetos, NASA
Additionally, mud. We knew that mud would choose Ingenuity’s photo voltaic panel, however we’ve proven that by the method of flying, there’s some type of impact that’s serving to us to maintain our panel clear. It’s troublesome to place a finger on precisely what it’s—possibly the vibration of flight, or the downwash of air passing over the photo voltaic panel and into the rotors, or the oncoming air as we transfer ahead. And it wasn’t simply the mud on the panels; we additionally bought mud in our actuators. Final yr, Ingenuity weathered an enormous mud storm, and afterwards after we tried checking our management surfaces, issues didn’t look good. The motor currents had been means too excessive, and we had been left scratching our heads, making an attempt to determine what to do. We didn’t have mud boots across the rotor system just because we had thought, “we’re solely going to be working for 30 days, we don’t want them.”
Our companions at AeroVironment [who worked with JPL on the Mars helicopter design] had one of many swash plate mechanisms mendacity round, so that they spoke to our geologists to determine what sorts of mud particles may need gotten blown into the swash plate on Mars. We despatched them some simulated Mars mud, they usually threw it on the swash plate, after which did an experiment to determine what number of instances they wanted to cycle it earlier than it began to function correctly. Seven cycles bought a lot of the mud out, so we tried that on Mars, and it labored. So now we have now a brand new device in our device belt: we all know the right way to clear ourselves. That’s big. And we wouldn’t have found out any of this stuff had we not gone previous 5 flights.
Trying on the Mars pattern return helicopters, how a lot of their design has been made attainable by the truth that Ingenuity has been capable of fly this lengthy, and reply these questions that you simply may not have even thought to ask?
All the design. I don’t suppose we’d be speaking about pattern restoration helicopters if Ingenuity didn’t fly, interval, and if it hasn’t survived for so long as it has. You will have to remember, Ingenuity is a tech demo. These pattern restoration helicopters are an actual a part of the mission now. If Perseverance has an anomaly within the subsequent decade, these helicopters are the backup—they need to work. And I’m certain that Ingenuity’s two years of prolonged operations offered the proof essential to even begin speaking in regards to the pattern restoration helicopters. In any other case, it might be loopy to suppose, “let’s go from tech demo to a part of a category B mission inside a yr.”
That’s wonderful. It should really feel actually good for you people to have utterly modified what the pattern return mission appears to be like like due to how profitable Ingenuity has been.
Completely. I personally thought to myself, “Hey, that is nice, Ingenuity has been doing an ideal job, and this shall be fantastic information for the following time we ship a rotorcraft to Mars.” Which I believed was going to be like ten years later—I believed that Mars pattern return would occur with a rover, after which possibly after that, we may throw some helicopters on Mars, possibly a hexacopter with some science payloads on it. By no means in my wildest goals did I ever suppose, whereas we’re nonetheless flying Ingenuity, that we’d be designing the subsequent helicopter mission primarily based on Ingenuity to go to Mars.
Extra broadly, how has Ingenuity influenced NASA’s strategy to robotics?
From a robotics perspective, I hope one of many long-lasting impacts of Ingenuity is the adoption of economic off-the-shelf expertise into extra NASA missions, and different non-NASA missions into area. This was the primary time we flew a cellular phone processor, not as a result of we beloved the concept about utilizing a component that wasn’t radiation hardened, however as a result of we had been pressured to. We would have liked a high-throughput processor, and the one means to do this and be light-weight sufficient was to make use of a cellular phone chip. There was loads of concern about that—we did some preliminary testing, however provided that we had been a tech demo, which suggests high-risk, excessive reward, we may solely achieve this a lot. And right here we’re, two years later, with this Snapdragon Qualcomm processor that’s been operating for 2 years on the floor of Mars, to not point out all the opposite elements just like the IMU, the digital camera, the battery, the photo voltaic panels. I believe that’s one of many unsung victories of Ingenuity. We now have a stake within the floor to say, “Off-the-shelf works, we will belief this stuff.” And we will make a stronger argument for the following mission to essentially allow your engineers and your scientists to have far more expertise on board than anything we’ve despatched into area.
Ingenuity will try Flight 50 any time now, with the purpose of touring 300 meters to the opposite facet of a ridge. The touchdown website could make it troublesome to know whether or not the flight was profitable till Perseverance catches up a bit, however we hope to listen to the excellent news throughout the subsequent few days.
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