NASA Perseverance Rover Prepares to Drop Ingenuity From Its Belly Next Month

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is about to give birth to a four-pound helicopter from its belly next month. The first-ever powered flight is expected to soar over Martian plains.

(Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Portrait of Perseverance and Ingenuity (Artist's Concept)

"Ingenuity's test flights are expected to begin no earlier than the first week of April," NASA officials wrote in a mission update. "The exact timing of the first flight will remain fluid as engineers work out details on the timeline for deployments and vehicle positioning of Perseverance and Ingenuity," NASA reported that its helicopter unit had selected a venue for the flights.

Ingenuity, an $85 million rotorcraft, could pave the way for a new approach to discovering other worlds. The drone will fly up to five test flights this spring, even though it is currently only a technical demonstration.

If it works, Ingenuity may be able to send back some amazing footage. Perseverance would most likely be following the flights with its own devices.

Unknown conditions could thwart Ingenuity's efforts because no one has ever flown a helicopter on Mars. Another groundbreaking Mars invention, a "mole" on NASA's InSight lander designed to hammer deep into the planet's surface, was unable to complete its mission in January due to unusually dense soil.

How Will Ingenuity Help Perseverance in Mars?

Perseverance, which landed inside the Red Planet's 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer) Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, also has Ingenuity tucked away in its belly. Perseverance would deploy Innovation onto the red dirt and travel some 330 feet (100 meters) away until it lands at the selected airfield.

According to mission team members, the six-wheeled rover would attempt to record the little chopper's flights using its Mastcam-Z video suite and two microphones.

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Ingenuity is a research show intended to pave the way for future aerial exploration of Mars. Space.com says the helicopter carries a high-resolution camera but no scientific instruments. NASA officials have stated that if Ingenuity's flights are successful, potential Red Planet missions could involve helicopters that serve as scouts for rovers and/or gather data on their own.

"It will be truly a Wright Brothers moment, but on another planet," MiMi Aung, project manager for the helicopter team, said per Business Insider. "Every step going forward will be first of a kind."

Perseverance will continue working on its main objective in earnest after assisting Ingenuity in getting off the ground. The rover will search for evidence of prehistoric life on Mars and gather hundreds of samples, which will be returned to Earth through a collaborative NASA-European Space Agency exploration campaign as early as 2031.

NASA to Preview First Mars Helicopter Flights

On Tuesday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT), NASA will host a simulated media conference to address future activities for the agency's Ingenuity Mars helicopter.

The flight zone where Ingenuity and NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover can attempt the first operated, managed flights on another planet has been selected by the teams running Ingenuity and NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

The briefing will be shown live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency's website. They would also live stream the briefing on various agency social media sites, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California's YouTube and Facebook channels.