1.04.2021

Perseverance rover begins steps to deploy Mars helicopter

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is being lowered from the belly of the Perseverance rover this week as ground teams run through a choreographed long-distance command sequence to safely release the $80 million rotorcraft onto the surface of Mars.

The slow, step-by-step deployment is projected to take around six days, assuming everything goes as planned. The first command uplinked from engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was to release a launch lock that kept the Ingenuity helicopter firmly attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover during the journey to Mars.

Images captured by a camera on the end of the rover’s 7-foot-long (2.1-meter) robotic arm showed the launch lock was released over the weekend.

Then a pyrotechnic device cut a cable to allow Ingenuity to begin rotating out of its horizontal position underneath the rover, and the helicopter extended two of its four landing legs. Pictures from the rover’s robotic arm camera Sunday showed the helicopter tilted at an angle below the craft’s belly, as expected.

An electric motor then fully rotated Ingenuity into a vertical orientation underneath the rover, a step confirmed in imagery downlinked from Mars on Monday. The helicopter’s body measures about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) tall.

The deployment sequence continued Tuesday to extend the helicopter’s other two landing legs. At that point, the helicopter remained attached to the rover by a single bolt and a couple of tiny electrical connectors, according to NASA.

On the day before Perseverance releases the helicopter, the Ingenuity team at JPL will fully charge the rotorcraft’s six battery cells using electricity from the rover’s plutonium power source. Then the rover will sever its connection to the helicopter to drop about 5 inches (13 centimeters) down to the Martian surface.

If ground teams determine the deployment sequence is going well, the helicopter could be deposited on the Martian surface by the end of this week.

As soon as next week, the rotorcraft could make the first powered flight in the atmosphere of a planet beyond Earth. Future missions to other worlds could use aerial scouts to reach locations beyond the range of ground-based vehicles.

The six-wheeled Perseverance rover landed Feb. 18 in Jezero Crater, which scientists say contained a large lake of liquid water more than three billion years ago. Since the landing, Perseverance has activated its cameras and instruments and scouted a flat “airfield” for Ingenuity to take off and land on a series of test flights next month.

Earlier this month, the rover jettisoned the debris cover that shielded the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft for landing.

Once Ingenuity is on the ground, the Perseverance begin driving away from the helicopter. Its destination will be an observation point at least 200 feet, or 60 meters, away from Ingenuity’s flight zone, which itself is about the length of a football field. The flight zone includes an airfield, a 33-by-33-foot (10-by-10-meter) area where the helicopter will take off and land.

The Ingenuity helicopter is a technology demonstration, and the autonomous test flights will come with risks. NASA wants to ensure the Perseverance rover is a safe distance away from the rotorcraft when it takes off.

There will be a bit of drama after the rover releases the solar-powered helicopter onto the surface.

Ingenuity’s batteries can power the helicopter and keep its internal electronics warm for about 25 hours before they need recharged. The rover will be shading Ingenuity’s solar panels after it releases the aircraft, so it will have to drive away within a day to allow sunlight to illuminate the helicopter, according to Farah Alibay, an engineer who oversees Perseverance’s integration with the Ingenuity helicopter.

“We will go through a number of days of commissioning, approximately a week, where we test out sensors, we test out solar mechanisms, we test the motors to make sure they spin right, and we will be very methodical and even driven as this engineering experiment unfolds,” said Bob Balaram, Ingenuity’s chief engineer at JPL, in a press briefing last week. “And then we will be at a point where we will undertake our first flight and then we will progressively undertake more aggressive flights once we understand and analyze all the behaviors on that first flight.”

Ingenuity’s counter-rotating rotors span about 4 feet tip-to-tip, and the blades will spin up to 2,537 rpm — more than 40 times per second — while the helicopter remains on the ground, a final test before engineers commit the aircraft to flight.

“Our current best estimate of when the (first) flight could happen is no earlier than about April 8, but things are fluid,” Balaram said last week. “We are very event and experiment driven, so that could be changed by a few days in either direction, but the best guess that we have right now is about April 8.”

Engineers plan up to five test flights, starting with an ascent to an altitude of about 10 feet (3 meters), where the craft will hover for about 30 seconds before making a turn and landing back where it took off. Further test flights will reach a maximum altitude of about 16 feet (5 meters), and introduce forward motion to carry the helicopter down the flight zone and back to its takeoff location.

NASA has set aside one month for the Ingenuity helicopter’s demonstration flights, with the clock starting when the rotorcraft is released onto the surface of Mars.

After the 31-day helicopter test campaign, the Perseverance rover will continue on its primary mission to identify, collect, and seal rock samples for return to Earth by a future mission.

The $2.7 billion Perseverance mission will search for signatures of past life on Mars, test an instrument designed to generate oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, and study the geology of the Jezero Crater landing site.

Scientists believe an ancient river flowed into the lake that once filled Jezero Crater. The dried-up river delta, located a little more than a mile from Perseverance’s current location, is the rover’s first major scientific target.

Quelle: SN

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Update: 4.04.2021

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Startvorbereitung für The Ingenuity helicopter

Mars Perseverance
Raw Image of the Week

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Mars Perseverance Sol 43: Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Apr. 4, 2021 (Sol 43) at the local mean solar time of 15:14:19.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 43: Rear Left Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Left Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Apr. 4, 2021 (Sol 43) at the local mean solar time of 15:14:28.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 43: Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Apr. 4, 2021 (Sol 43) at the local mean solar time of 15:15:08.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Quelle: NASA

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Update: 6.04.2021

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Perseverance rover’s zoomable camera checks out on Red Planet

Scientists have confirmed the first zoomable camera on Mars is in top-top shape since arriving aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover in February, adding a long-distance survey capability to the robot’s scientific toolkit.

The zoomable imaging instrument, which is actually composed of two nearly identical cameras to provide stereo views, is now ready to capture high-definition video of the Ingenuity helicopter’s first flight in the Martian atmosphere later this month.

The Mastcam-Z instrument (the Z stands for Zoom) is an upgraded version of the cameras on the mast of NASA’s Curiosity rover, adding the capability to focus and zoom in on rocks across the Martian surface.

Within days of Perseverance’s landing Feb. 18, Mastcam-Z took pictures at a range of zoom settings. Jim Bell, Mastcam-Z’s principal investigator at Arizona State University, said last month it was “very exciting” to use the instrument early in the mission to prove everything was working as expected.

“Obviously, science team members were very quickly drooling over all these images,” Bell said March 16 in a presentation at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Scientists used the Mastcam-Z cameras to take pictures of a calibration target to confirm the instrument’s settings, then captured wide-angle and telephoto views of the surrounding landscape at Jezero Crater, Perseverance’s landing site.

Mastcam-Z takes pictures that scientists back on Earth can stitch together to create mosaics, providing high-resolution panoramic views 360 degrees across the horizon, with a 180-degree field of view from straight down to straight up. The cameras have an effective focal length ranging from 26 millimeters to 110 millimeters.

Bell said the science team tested Mastcam-Z’s resolution by aiming the cameras at Martian rocks near the rover. Fully zoomed in, the cameras can resolve features as small as the tip of a pencil near the rover, or as small as an almond from a football field away, scientists said.

“We can also do that in stereo,” Bell said. “We match the eyes from wide angle all the way to telephoto, (which is) kind of an advancement over what the Mastcam can can do on Curiosity,” Bell said. “But the system is very, very similar, also designed and built in collaboration and operate in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.”

Mastcam-Z’s cameras have color filters that can give scientists hints about the composition of distant rocks. Bell likened Mastcam-Z’s role on the mission as “doing triage” to help the rover science team select targets for higher-fidelity spectrometers and other instruments.

At its highest zoom setting, Mastcam-Z was able to see details in the edge of delta deposits laid down by a dried-up river that flowed into a lake that filled Jezero Crater billions of years ago. The delta sediments, more than a mile from the rover’s current location, are a primary target for Perseverance, and scientists hope to find signatures of ancient life there.

“We’ll eventually get closer to these, and of course, get better resolution than we’re getting,” Bell said. At the rover’s current distance a few kilometers from the delta, Bell said Mastcam-Z can resolve features with sizes of a basketball to a beach ball.

Bell said Mastcam-Z will be used for science and rover operations.

“We’re doing all of the kinds of geomorphology, geology, atmospheric science, some astronomical observations … color multispectral imaging for science, but we’re also doing a lot of engineering support for driving and (robot) arm placement and helicopter operations,” Bell said.

Mastcam-Z can also capture high-definition videos, a capability Bell says will be put to use with the test flights of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter later this month.

The Perseverance rover released the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft onto the Martian surface Saturday, setting the stage for the first of up to five planned test flights as soon as April 11.

The rover itself will drive to an observation post nearly a football field away from the helicopter’s flight zone. Managers want to ensure the experimental drone, which will be attempting the first powered flight in the atmosphere of another planet, does not endanger the $2.4 billion rover.

“We plan to use our video capability, and our telephoto capabilities, because we have to stand off quite a ways from the helicopter, Bell said. “But we’ll be definitely doing videos with the Mastcam-Z of the helicopter. It’s going to be very exciting, and we’re looking forward to those really historic aviation first kind of movies.”

Quelle: SN

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Update: 8.04.2021

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NASA’s First Weather Report From Jezero Crater on Mars 

One of the wind sensors aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover can be seen deploying from the mast in this image taken on Mar. 1, 2021, the 10th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The sensor is part of a suite of weather sensors called MEDA. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This set of images shows part of the deployment of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) wind sensors on NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. MEDA is a set of weather sensors, with the wind sensor components on the rover's remote sensing mast. These images were taken by Perseverance's Navigation Cameras on Feb. 28, 2021.

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Perseverance’s MEDA will help us understand how to prepare astronauts for a future on the Red Planet.

The weather often plays a role in our daily plans. You might put on a light jacket when the forecast calls for a cool breeze or delay your travel plans because of an impending storm. NASA engineers use weather data to inform their plans, too, which is why they’re analyzing the conditions millions of miles away on Mars.

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover first powered on for 30 minutes Feb. 19, approximately one day after the rover touched down on the Red Planet. Around 8:25 p.m. PST that same day, engineers received initial data from MEDA.

“After a nail-biting entry descent and landing phase, our MEDA team anxiously awaited the first data that would confirm our instrument landed safely," said Jose Antonio Rodriguez-Manfredi, MEDA principal investigator with the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial in Madrid. "Those were moments of great intensity and excitement. Finally, after years of work and planning, we received the first data report from MEDA. Our system was alive and sending its first meteorological data and images from the SkyCam.”

MEDA weighs roughly 12 pounds (5.5 kilograms) and contains a suite of environmental sensors to record dust levels and six atmospheric conditions – wind (both speed and direction), pressure, relative humidity, air temperature, ground temperature, and radiation (from both the Sun and space). The system wakes itself up every hour, and after recording and storing data, it goes to sleep independently of rover operations. The system records data whether the rover is awake or not, both day and night.

As engineers received MEDA’s first data points on Earth, the team pieced together its first weather report from the Jezero Crater on Mars.

The data showed it was just below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius) on the surface when the system started recording, and that temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25.6 degrees Celsius) within 30 minutes.

MEDA’s radiation and dust sensor showed Jezero was experiencing a cleaner atmosphere than Gale Crater around the same time, roughly 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away, according to reports from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) aboard the Curiosity rover stationed inside Gale. And MEDA’s pressure sensors told engineers the pressure on Mars was 718 Pascals, well within the 705-735 Pascal range predicted by their models for that time on Mars.

Bridging the Atmospheric Gap

Thanks to telescopes here on Earth and spacecraft orbiting Mars, scientists have a good understanding of the Red Planet’s climate and even some insight into the magnitude of dust storms throughout a single Martian year (two Earth years). However, predicting dust lifting and transport, or how small storms evolve into large ones encircling the whole planet, will benefit future science and exploration missions.

Over the next year, MEDA will provide valuable information on temperature cycles, heat fluxes, dust cycles, and how dust particles interact with light, ultimately affecting both the temperature and weather. Just as important will be MEDA’s readings of solar radiation intensity, cloud formations, and local winds that might inform the design of the planned Mars Sample Return mission. Additionally, the measurements will help engineers better understand how to prepare humans and habitats to deal with the conditions on Mars.

REMS aboard the Curiosity rover currently provides similar daily weather and atmospheric data. MEDA, conceived through an international collaboration, builds upon REMS’ autonomous weather station setup and features a few upgrades. The system was provided by Spain and developed by CAB with contributions from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The U.S. contributions were funded by the Game Changing Development program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Boasting higher overall durability and additional temperature readings, MEDA can record the temperature at three atmospheric heights: 2.76 feet (0.84 meters), 4.76 feet (1.45 meters), and 98.43 feet (30 meters), in addition to the surface temperature. The system uses sensors on the rover’s body and mast and an infrared sensor capable of measuring temperature nearly 100 feet above the rover. MEDA also records the radiation budget near the surface, which will help prepare for future human exploration missions on Mars.

With MEDA’s weather reports, engineers now have atmospheric data from three different locations on the Red Planet – Perseverance, Curiosity, and NASA’s InSight lander, which hosts the Temperature and Wind sensors for InSight (TWINS). The trio will enable a deeper understanding of Martian weather patterns, events, and atmospheric turbulence that could influence planning for future missions. In the near term, MEDA’s information is helping decide the best atmospheric conditions for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flights.

As Ingenuity achieved pre-flight milestones, a MEDA report from the 43rd and 44th Martian days, or sols, of the mission (April 3-4 on Earth) showed a temperature high of minus 7.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 22 degrees Celsius) and low of minus 117.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 83 degrees Celsius) in Jezero Crater. MEDA also measured wind gusts at around 22 mph (10 meters per second).

“We’re very excited to see MEDA working well,” said Manuel de la Torre Juárez, deputy principal investigator for MEDA at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “MEDA’s reports will provide a better picture of the environment near the surface. Data from MEDA and other instrument experiments will reveal more pieces of the puzzles on Mars and help prepare for human exploration. We hope that its data will help make our designs stronger and our missions safer.”

More About Perseverance

The key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Quelle: NASA 

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Mars Perseverance Sol 46: Left Navigation Camera (Navcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on Apr. 7, 2021 (Sol 46) at the local mean solar time of 11:53:49.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 47: Left Navigation Camera (Navcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on Apr. 8, 2021 (Sol 47) at the local mean solar time of 14:41:58.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 47: Left Navigation Camera (Navcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on Apr. 8, 2021 (Sol 47) at the local mean solar time of 14:41:13.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 47: Left Navigation Camera (Navcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on Apr. 8, 2021 (Sol 47) at the local mean solar time of 14:41:58.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 47: Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Apr. 8, 2021 (Sol 47) at the local mean solar time of 14:39:39.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 47: Right Navigation Camera (Navcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Right Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on Apr. 8, 2021 (Sol 47) at the local mean solar time of 14:45:27.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 47: Left Mastcam-Z Camera

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. This image was acquired on Apr. 8, 2021 (Sol 47) at the local mean solar time of 12:48:36.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Mars Perseverance Sol 31: Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in front of it using its onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A. This image was acquired on Mar. 24, 2021 (Sol 31) at the local mean solar time of 13:02:54.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 43: Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in front of it using its onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A. This image was acquired on Apr. 4, 2021 (Sol 43) at the local mean solar time of 14:12:02.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 43: Rear Left Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Left Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Apr. 4, 2021 (Sol 43) at the local mean solar time of 15:14:28.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Perseverance Sol 43: Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in back of it using its onboard Rear Right Hazard Avoidance Camera. This image was acquired on Apr. 4, 2021 (Sol 43) at the local mean solar time of 14:13:44.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Quelle: NASA

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Say Cheese on Mars: Perseverance’s Selfie With Ingenuity

 

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 feet (3.9 meters) from the rover. This image was taken by the WASTON camera on the rover’s robotic arm on April 6, 2021, the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Credit: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

 

NASA’s newest Mars rover used a camera on the end of its robotic arm to snap this shot of itself with the Ingenuity helicopter nearby.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 feet (4 meters) away in this image from April 6, 2021, the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Perseverance captured the image using a camera called WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering), part of the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument, located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.

Perseverance’s selfie with Ingenuity was stitched together from 62 individual images taken while the rover was looking at the helicopter, then again while it was looking at the WATSON camera. Videos explaining how NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers take their selfies can be found here.

Once the team is ready to attempt the first flight, Perseverance will receive and relay to Ingenuity the final flight instructions from JPL mission controllers. Several factors will determine the precise time for the flight, including modeling of local wind patterns informed by measurements taken by the MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer) instrument aboard Perseverance. Ingenuity will run its rotors to 2,537 rpm and, if all final self-checks look good, lift off. After climbing at a rate of about 3 feet per second (1 meter per second), the helicopter will hover at 10 feet (3 meters) above the surface for up to 30 seconds. Then, Ingenuity will descend and touch back down on the Martian surface.

Several hours after the first flight has occurred, Perseverance will downlink Ingenuity’s first set of engineering data and, possibly, images and video from the rover’s Navigation Cameras and Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras. From the data downlinked that first evening after the flight, the Ingenuity team expects to be able to determine if its first attempt to fly at Mars was a success. Flight test results will be discussed by the Ingenuity team in a media conference that same day.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and manages operations of Perseverance and Ingenuity for the agency. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. WATSON was built by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego, and is operated jointly by MSSS and JPL.

The Mars helicopter technology demonstration activity is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate.

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Quelle: NASA