Entering, landing and landing on Mars is a challenge for any mission, with vehicles enduring extreme forces of gravity, high temperatures and pressure changes as they enter the Martian atmosphere at almost 20,000 km / h (12,500 mph). While NASA’s Perseverance rover had the best-documented landing on Mars in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflating to touch, and the rover also depicted wreckage from the parachute and black shell earlier, that the new images from the helicopter provide more detail and “a different advantage”. “Whether they either reinforce that our systems worked the way we think they did or even provide a set of mechanical data that we can use to design a Mars sample return, it would be amazing. And if not, the photos are still amazing and inspiring, “said Ian Clark, who worked on Perseverance’s parachute system, in a statement. “It simply came to our notice then. “It exudes weird, doesn’t it?” Dr. Clark of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) told the New York Times. Aerial images of the rear shell and debris from its impact on the surface of Mars at a speed of about 126 km / h (78 mph) indicate that its protective coating remained intact at the atmospheric entry of the spacecraft. “Many of the 80 high-strength suspension lines connecting the rear shell to the parachute are visible and also appear intact,” Nasa said. While only a third of the parachute can be seen in the new images, NASA scientists say the canopy shows no signs of damage from ultrasonic airflow during inflation. They say the images took a lot of pre-planned flight and careful maneuvering to make the helicopter, adding that it would take “several weeks of analysis” for a final verdict on the wreckage. “In order to get the shots we needed, Ingenuity did a lot of maneuvering, but we were sure because there were complicated maneuvers on flights 10, 12 and 13. Our landing point created us nicely to reflect an area of interest for the Perseverance team in science. Flight 2, near the ‘Séítah’ ridge, “said Håvard Grip, chief pilot of Ingenuity at JPL. Scientists say this new rotor area in the dry delta of Mars’s Jezero Crater is a dramatic departure from the “moderate, relatively flat” ground over which the helicopter has flown since its first flight. “Rising more than 130 feet (40 meters) above the crater floor and filled with jagged rocks, corner surfaces, protruding boulders and pockets full of sand, the delta promises to have many geological discoveries – perhaps even proof that there was tiny life in “Mars billions of years ago,” Nasa said. The data provided by the helicopter would help the Perseverance team assess potential scientific targets to explore its rover and also offer route planning assistance. Nasa says Ingenuity could even be deployed to depict geological features far enough away to reach the Perseverance rover. Scientists say the helicopter could also be useful for locating landing zones and locations on the surface of Mars, where samples could be stored for NASA’s proposed Mars Sample Return program.
