During its one-year anniversary flight on April 19, the small helicopter took pictures of the striped parachute used during the Perseverance landing – often referred to as the “7 Minutes of Terror” because it happens faster than radio signals can to reach Earth from Mars – February 18, 2021. He also located the cone-shaped rear shell that helped protect the rover and Ingenuity on their journey from Earth to Mars and during its fiery, sunken descent to the surface. of Mars. Engineers working on the Mars Sample Return project, an ambitious multi-mission process for the return of Mars samples collected by Perseverance to Earth by 2030, asked if Ingenuity could assemble these images on its 26th flight. Studying the elements that allowed a safe landing can help them prepare for future missions to the red planet that will require landing and even launching from the surface of Mars for the first time. “NASA has expanded Ingenuity flight operations to launch groundbreaking flights like this,” said Teddy Tzanetos, head of Ingenuity’s team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “Every time we are in the air, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective that no previous planetary mission could achieve. The Mars Sample Return recognition request is a perfect example of the usefulness of aerial platforms on Mars.” Upon entry, descent and landing, the spacecraft experiences hot temperatures and gravity as it sinks into the Martian atmosphere at almost 12,500 miles per hour (20,000 kilometers per hour). Previously, we had only seen images of discarded landing gear from the perspective of a rover, such as an image taken by Perseverance showing the parachute and rear shell from a distance. The aerial images, first taken by Ingenuity from 26 feet (8 meters) in the air, provide more detail. “Perseverance had the best documented landing on Mars in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflating to touchdown,” said Ian Clark, a former Perseverance systems engineer and head of the Mars Sample Return ascent phase at JPL. in a statement. “But Ingenuity images offer a different advantage. Whether they either reinforce that our systems worked the way we think they did or even provide a set of engineering data we can use to design a Mars sample return, it would be amazing. no, the Images are still amazing and inspiring “. The rear shell can be seen among a field of debris created after hitting the surface of Mars while moving at about 78 miles per hour (126 kilometers per hour). But the protective coating on the rear shell seems to be intact, as are the 80 suspension lines that attach it to the parachute. The orange and white parachute can be seen, covered with dust, but the canopy shows no damage. It was the largest parachute used on Mars to date, with a width of 70.5 feet (21.5 meters). The team will continue to analyze the images to determine if the parachute has changed in the coming weeks. During the 26th Ingenuity Air Excursion, the helicopter flew a total of 1,181 feet (360 meters). So far, it has recorded 49 minutes of total flight time and has traveled 3.9 miles (6.3 kilometers) in the past year. “Ingenuity did a lot of maneuvering to get the shots we needed, but we were sure there were complicated maneuvers on flights 10, 12 and 13,” Håvard Grip, Ingenuity’s chief pilot at JPL, said in a statement. Our landing site was beautifully designed to depict an area of interest for the Perseverance Science Team on Flight 27, near the Séítah Ridge. The helicopter and rover arrived in an ancient river delta where water once flowed into the Jezero crater millions of years ago. The majestic delta rises over 130 feet (40 meters) above the crater floor and is full of boulders, sand pockets and jagged cliffs – and could be the best place to look for signs of ancient life if it ever existed on Mars. . Ingenuity has the crucial task of exploring two dry river canals to see which of the two Perseverance must use to climb to the top of the delta. It can also share feature images that could become potential scientific targets for the rover.
