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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 foul efficiency for a tech demo that was imagined to be terminated two years in the past.
From right here, things are only going to get more difficult for Ingenuity. Because the Perseverance rover continues its climb up Jezero crater’s historical river delta, Ingenuity is attempting its greatest to scout forward. However, the winding hills and valleys make it tough for the helicopter to speak with the rover, and thru the rover, to its staff 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 nicely over an hour now within the skies of Mars.”
—Teddy Tzanetos, NASA
For the Ingenuity staff, this new mode of operation was each a problem and a possibility. This was nothing new for folk 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 Workforce 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 it as simply one other flight?
Teddy Tzanetos: It’s massively significant. We’ll come again to the routine query in a second, however it’s very significant for all of us. After we hit 10 after which 25 it was large, however 50 is a reasonably critical quantity now that we’re 10X our preliminary flight depend. Two years in, 10 kilometers flown, and we’re nicely over an hour now within the skies of Mars. So hitting flight 50, it’s a giant factor—we’re in all probability going to arrange a contented hour and have a giant occasion for the staff.
Are you able to speak about a few of the new challenges that Ingenuity has been dealing with because it makes its method 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 have been nonetheless within the Three Forks area, the place the bottom was flat. We might 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—an enormous distance.
After which we began to appreciate that the rover was going to enter the river delta in like six months. It’s going to start out climbing up by means of dozens and dozens of meters of elevation change and passing by means of ravines, and that’s going to start out presenting a telecom situation for us. We knew that it couldn’t be enterprise as regular anymore—if we nonetheless wished to maintain this helicopter mission going, not solely did we have to change the way in which we have 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 carried out 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 a bit of 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, based mostly off of orbital imagery. However when you have higher data out of your pictures than what we people had right here on Earth, and also you see a hazard, choose a safer web site and land there as an alternative.” In order that’s one big change in what’s occurring now. And we want that on the river delta as a result of we’re now not flying in a car parking zone—in addition to the problem of the elevation change, the terrain is totally different as nicely, with extra, bigger rocks that Ingenuity must keep away from.
The second function that we added was to incorporate details about the terrain to Ingenuity’s navigation filter. After we designed Ingenuity, we assumed we have been solely going to be deployed on the flat terrain of Three Forks. Subsequently, any change within the laser altimeter measurement we might belief to be an actual change within the movement of the helicopter, or we might a minimum of filter that into our altitude knowledge. However that’s now not the case. Now, as Ingenuity flies, if the altimeter sees a giant lower in elevation, that could possibly be as a result of the bottom is rising to fulfill us reasonably than as a result of we’re shifting down. So since December, we’ve been telling Ingenuity in regards to the elevation profile throughout its meant 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 finances maps. You possibly can think about each hill or rise that might occlude the road of sight between the helicopter antenna and the rover antenna may have a big effect in your telecom hyperlink, and we’ve fantastic maps from orbit the place we will choose a possible touchdown level and propagate our radio hyperlink finances calculation throughout that time.
We’re attempting to plan these flights as aggressively as we will to make it possible for we keep forward of Perseverance. We don’t wish to run the danger of getting a scenario the place the rover may have to attend for Ingenuity—that’s not an excellent factor for anyone. However we additionally wish 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 stunning huge crater to the north of the place Ingenuity at present is. We’re going to get views that the rover staff wouldn’t be capable of present for the science staff, and it’s actually thrilling for us when there are these moments which are uniquely pushed by Ingenuity’s functionality. We wish to go after these, as a result of we wish 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.
“Among the best hallmarks of expertise success is if you don’t notice 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 end in order that Perseverance might transfer on to deal with its major mission. However clearly, Ingenuity continues to be flying, and nonetheless maintaining with the rover. Not solely that, however we’ve heard from a rover driver how valuable it is to have Ingenuity scouting ahead. 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 depart the helicopter behind?
Tzanetos: We’ve to have a look at the large image. An important factor at this level is for Perseverance to gather samples and do science. For those who take a look at all the pieces that must be carried out throughout the entire rover’s science payloads, each sol [Martian day] is treasured. And the helicopter staff understands that.
We’re doing our greatest to change into extra environment friendly, and I believe that’s a giant win that we don’t rejoice sufficient on the Ingenuity staff internally—how way more environment friendly we’re in the present day in comparison with the place we have been two years in the past. Earlier, you talked about flying changing into routine. I believe the staff has succeeded in doing that, and I’m extraordinarily pleased with that accomplishment. Among the best hallmarks of expertise success is if you don’t notice 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’ve 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 go sure checkpoints to get our knowledge uploaded and radiated by means of the Deep Area Community in time. We’ve labored very, very onerous to reduce our footprint on that timeline, whereas additionally being reactive in order that we will transfer shortly on any last-minute adjustments that the rover staff wants us to accommodate. We’ve 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 staff needs to trigger a delay for the rover. All of us need the rover to meet its mission, get its samples, and get the science carried out. If we’ve a critical anomaly, we’ll need to take that one sol at a time. We’re going to strive as onerous as we will to ensure we will preserve pushing this little child so far as we will whereas nonetheless undertaking 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 stability threat to the helicopter in opposition to exploration and science targets, or attempting new issues like pushing Ingenuity’s flight envelope?
Tzanetos: That’s the enjoyable half! There’s no instruction handbook. The best way we do it’s we’ve a cellphone name with the core folks on the staff, and everybody simply shares their opinions. The 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 means of a bit of terrain that isn’t notably fascinating, that’s once we begin wanting on the flight envelope developments, proper? With flight 49, we’re going greater than we ever had earlier than and flying sooner than we ever have earlier than. That’s not a request from the science group or the rover planners; that’s coming from our personal inside staff the place we’re attempting 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 sample recovery helicopters. So there’s that ever-present stress to push tougher, push sooner, push greater. And let’s additionally get some fantastic scouting knowledge alongside the way in which once we can.
What have you ever realized about flying helicopters on Mars from 50 flights, that you’d don’t know about should you’d been in a position to just do 5 flights?
Tzanetos: Tons of issues. Since I simply talked about flying sooner and flying greater, and we’ve now legitimately expanded Ingenuity’s flight envelope. There’s the lifetime argument, which is clear—this design has lasted for much longer than anybody might have anticipated, even simply by way of elements and workmanship. Every one in all Ingenuity’s almost a thousand solder joints have been soldered by technicians at JPL who’ve probably the most blessed, exact palms. 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 obtained so chilly that Ingenuity’s battery would die each evening, the heater would cease operating, and all the pieces would freeze. That was an enormous curveball that we needed to deal with, however due to the workmanship of these folks, Ingenuity was in a position to 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 decide on Ingenuity’s photo voltaic panel, however we’ve proven that by means of the method of flying, there’s some kind of impact that’s serving to us to maintain our panel clear. It’s tough to place a finger on precisely what it’s—perhaps 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 obtained mud in our actuators. Final yr, Ingenuity weathered a giant mud storm, and afterwards once we tried checking our management surfaces, issues didn’t look good. The motor currents have been method too excessive, and we have been left scratching our heads, attempting 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 occasions they wanted to cycle it earlier than it began to function correctly. Seven cycles obtained many of the mud out, so we tried that on Mars, and it labored. So now we’ve a brand new software in our software belt: we all know the 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.
Wanting on the Mars pattern return helicopters, how a lot of their design has been made attainable by the truth that Ingenuity has been in a position to 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 have got to bear in mind, 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 positive that Ingenuity’s two years of prolonged operations supplied the proof essential to even begin speaking in regards to the pattern restoration helicopters. In any other case, it will 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 seems like due to how profitable Ingenuity has been.
Completely. I personally thought to myself, “Hey, that is nice, Ingenuity has been doing an amazing job, and this shall be fantastic knowledge 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 perhaps after that, we might throw some helicopters on Mars, perhaps a hexacopter with some science payloads on it. By no means in my wildest desires did I ever suppose, whereas we’re nonetheless flying Ingenuity, that we’d be designing the next helicopter mission based on Ingenuity to go to Mars.
Extra broadly, how has Ingenuity influenced NASA’s method 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 mobile phone processor, not as a result of we cherished the thought about utilizing a component that wasn’t radiation hardened, however as a result of we have been compelled to. We would have liked a high-throughput processor, and the one method to try this and be light-weight sufficient was to make use of a mobile phone chip. There was loads of concern about that—we did some preliminary testing, however provided that we have been a tech demo, which suggests high-risk, excessive reward, we might solely accomplish that 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 parts just like the IMU, the digicam, 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 actually allow your engineers and your scientists to have way more expertise on board than the rest we’ve despatched into area.
Ingenuity will try Flight 50 any time now, with the purpose of touring 300 meters to the opposite aspect of a ridge. The touchdown web site may make it difficult to know whether or not the flight was profitable till Perseverance catches up a bit, however we hope to listen to the excellent news inside the subsequent few days.
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