Views Of Pluto

What We Learned from Flying a Helicopter on Mars

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history – not only as the first aircraft to perform powered, controlled flight on another world – but also for exceeding expectations, pushing the limits, and setting the stage for future NASA aerial exploration of other worlds.

Built as a technology demonstration designed to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, Ingenuity performed flight operations from the Martian surface for almost three years. The helicopter ended its mission on Jan. 25, 2024, after sustaining damage to its rotor blades during its 72nd flight.

So, what did we learn from this small but mighty helicopter?

We can fly rotorcraft in the thin atmosphere of other planets.

Ingenuity proved that powered, controlled flight is possible on other worlds when it took to the Martian skies for the first time on April 19, 2021.

Flying on planets like Mars is no easy feat: The Red Planet has a significantly lower gravity – one-third that of Earth’s – and an extremely thin atmosphere, with only 1% the pressure at the surface compared to our planet. This means there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity’s two 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight.

Ingenuity performed several flights dedicated to understanding key aerodynamic effects and how they interact with the structure and control system of the helicopter, providing us with a treasure-trove of data on how aircraft fly in the Martian atmosphere.

Now, we can use this knowledge to directly improve performance and reduce risk on future planetary aerial vehicles.

Creative solutions and “ingenuity” kept the helicopter flying longer than expected.

Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days (more than 33 times longer than originally planned), Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, dusted itself off after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter.

Fun fact: To keep costs low, the helicopter contained many off-the-shelf-commercial parts from the smartphone industry - parts that had never been tested in deep space. Those parts also surpassed expectations, proving durable throughout Ingenuity’s extended mission, and can inform future budget-conscious hardware solutions.

There is value in adding an aerial dimension to interplanetary surface missions.

Ingenuity traveled to Mars on the belly of the Perseverance rover, which served as the communications relay for Ingenuity and, therefore, was its constant companion. The helicopter also proved itself a helpful scout to the rover.

After its initial five flights in 2021, Ingenuity transitioned to an “operations demonstration,” serving as Perseverance’s eyes in the sky as it scouted science targets, potential rover routes, and inaccessible features, while also capturing stereo images for digital elevation maps.

Airborne assets like Ingenuity unlock a new dimension of exploration on Mars that we did not yet have – providing more pixels per meter of resolution for imaging than an orbiter and exploring locations a rover cannot reach.

Tech demos can pay off big time.

Ingenuity was flown as a technology demonstration payload on the Mars 2020 mission, and was a high risk, high reward, low-cost endeavor that paid off big. The data collected by the helicopter will be analyzed for years to come and will benefit future Mars and other planetary missions.

Just as the Sojourner rover led to the MER-class (Spirit and Opportunity) rovers, and the MSL-class (Curiosity and Perseverance) rovers, the team believes Ingenuity’s success will lead to future fleets of aircraft at Mars.

In general, NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions test and advance new technologies, and then transition those capabilities to NASA missions, industry, and other government agencies. Chosen technologies are thoroughly ground- and flight-tested in relevant operating environments — reducing risks to future flight missions, gaining operational heritage and continuing NASA’s long history as a technological leader.

You can fall in love with robots on another planet.

Following in the tracks of beloved Martian rovers, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter built up a worldwide fanbase. The Ingenuity team and public awaited every single flight with anticipation, awe, humor, and hope.

Check out #ThanksIngenuity on social media to see what’s been said about the helicopter’s accomplishments.

Learn more about Ingenuity’s accomplishments here. And make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Confirmed: Summer 2023 Hottest in NASA’s Record

All three months of summer 2023 broke records. July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and the hottest July. June 2023 was the hottest June, and August 2023 was the hottest August.

NASA’s temperature record, GISTEMP, starts in 1880, when consistent, modern recordkeeping became possible. Our record uses millions of measurements of surface temperature from weather stations, ships and ocean buoys, and Antarctic research stations. Other agencies and organizations who keep similar global temperature records find the same pattern of long-term warming.

Global temperatures are rising from increased emissions of greenhouse gasses, like carbon dioxide and methane. Over the last 200 years, humans have raised atmospheric CO2 by nearly 50%, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels.

Drivers of climate change, both natural and human-caused, leave distinct fingerprints. Through observations and modeling, NASA researchers confirm that the current warming is the result of human activities, particularly increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Will ordinary sunglasses suffice?

Unfortunately not. Sunglasses are not sufficient to ever look directly at the Sun. You can find glasses and filters that are safe here https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety And if you can’t find any that will get to you in time for the eclipse on Monday (you can always use them to look at the Sun at a later time to see sunspots), you can make a pin hole projector! https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/projection I think those are fantastic fun! 

Build it. Test it. Then, Fly it.

Hundreds of pieces of rockets, rocket engines, boosters, space capsules, launch structures and more have been built, tested and prepared to take us on our Journey to Mars. Across the country, America’s space program is hard at work to launch the Orion space capsule on its first uncrewed flight atop the powerful Space Launch System in 2018.  

But enough of the artist concepts, let’s take a look at the real components being made across the country to prepare for this milestone:

Orion Spacecraft

From testing individual bracket strength to space flight tests, the Orion team is testing every component and subsystem of the spacecraft to ensure crew safety, operational reliability and backup systems are built into the spacecraft from the ground up. To date, hundreds of tests have been conducted across the program to verify and validate that Orion’s design, manufacturing and systems integration meet the rigorous requirements for safe human space exploration.

Orion engineers have subjected the spacecraft to deafening sound blasts, Earthquake-like vibrations and hurricane-force winds in preparation for Orion’s next flight. Large structures such as Orion’s crew and service modules were tested at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Facility in Littleton, Colorado, and our Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. Motor and engine tests have been conducted at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility in Sacramento, California, and Orbital ATK’s facilities in Promontory, Utah, and Elkton, Maryland.

Water impact testing of Orion’s landing capabilities were conducted at our Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the capsule’s massive parachute system has been tested in various landing scenarios at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Final assembly, integration and pre-flight testing will take place at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space Launch System

Towering more than 320 feet, the Space Launch System will be the world’s most powerful rocket. Consisting of a core stage and two boosters, RS-25 engines, and the software to power it all, the initial configuration will provide 15 percent more thrust at launch than the Saturn V rocket and carry more than three times the mass of the Space Shuttle. When complete, we’ll be ready to fire up the largest and most powerful rocket ever built on it’s inaugural launch.

At our Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, a talented crew of humans with the latest in machinery is building SLS’s core stage. The core stage is the structural backbone of SLS that stores cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that feed the vehicle’s four RS-25 engines. 

For two monumental minutes in June, the SLS solid rocket boosters fired up in an amazing display of power as engineers verified their designs in the last full-scale test before SLS’s first flight. The smoke and fire may last only two minutes, but engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Orbital ATK in Promontory, Utah, prepared weeks — even months — in advance for that test. 

Launch Site

At our Kennedy Space Center in Florida, teams are hard at work transforming the historic Vehicle Assembly Building for the launches of tomorrow. Like a stairway to the heavens, these upgrades include the building and installation of platforms to access the new Space Launch System rocket. 

Before SLS roars into deep space from Launch Pad 39B, our Ground Systems program continues making significant upgrades and modifications to the historic launch pad to accommodate the new rocket’s shape and size. 

To make room for this new generation of rockets, workers took down the gantry that stood in support of the Space Shuttle program for 30 years and replaced it with, well, not much really. But that was the idea. Whenever SLS heads out to the pad in the future, it's going to bring its support structure with it. With that in mind, Pad 39B will provide all the fluids, electrical, and communications services to the launch platform.

All of this work is essential to get SLS flight ready before it’s maiden voyage and is an important step on our Journey to Mars.

Next Steps

The work happening across the country is preparing us for the first flight of SLS and Orion in 2018. That first, uncrewed test flight is critical to paving the way for future flights that will carry astronauts to deep space, including on a journey to Mars.

Ultimately, the SLS maiden flight will help us prepare for future human missions. During this flight, currently designated Exploration Mission-1, the spacecraft will travel thousands of miles beyond the moon over the course of about a three-week mission.

It will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

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Have a Happy Halloween with NASA

Attention ghouls and goblins of the galaxy! The season for scares and frights is upon us, so we’ve rounded up a few Halloween resources to capture that festive feeling. Read on for craft ideas, free decoration downloads, a creepy soundtrack, and even costume ideas.

Overdid it at the pumpkin patch this year? Get some creative inspiration and some pumpkin-building tips from our Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers, carve a James Webb Space Pumpkin, or paint a pumpkin with space and weather themed designs. And yes – you can make a NASA pumpkin, too.

Speaking of design, check out our terrifying Galaxy of Horrors posters: decorate your walls with a an illustration of a galactic graveyard or of dark energy prowling through the universe…

If costumes are more your thing, see how the astronauts aboard the International Space Station have dressed up over the years.

Finally, our Sinister Sounds of the Solar System playlist will give you just the right soundtrack for a haunted house or a party – or for scaring yourself all alone.

What kind of things are you looking forward to as NASA gets closer to the Artemis and Gateway missions? Do you plan to be a part of them?

Exploring the Infrared Universe

The universe is filled with billions upon billions of stars. Look up at the night sky, and you can see a small fraction of them, each appearing as a tiny pinprick of light against the inky blackness of space. But did you know there’s more to space than our eyes can see? To observe the hidden cosmos, we use telescopes that can see in the infrared. How do stars and planets form? How do black holes feast? How does matter escape galaxies? These are all questions we can begin to answer by exploring space in this wavelength of light. The infrared views captured by SOFIA, the world’s largest flying observatory, have helped us uncover mysterious objects and phenomena in our galaxy and beyond! The findings are changing our understanding of the way in which the universe works. Here are five cool scientific discoveries made by the mission.

We learned that cosmic dust — a building block of stars and planets — can survive the powerful blast from an exploding star.

We observed how material can be transported from deep inside a galaxy into intergalactic space.

We discovered that a newborn star can prevent the birth of new stars in its cosmic neighborhood. 

We found magnetic fields help feed hungry black holes...

...and can disrupt the formation of new stars.

SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that allows astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. Learn more about the mission: www.nasa.gov/sofia

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What's a Question you wish someone would ask?

Beached Berg in Alaska

Each year since 2009, geophysicist and pilot Chris Larsen has led two sets of flights to monitor Alaska’s mountain glaciers. From the air, scientists like Larsen collect critical information on how the region’s snow and ice is changing. They also are in a good position to snap photographs of the stunning landscape. Larsen was flying with NASA science writer Maria-Jose Viñas on board. During a flight on August 19, 2018, Viñas shot this photograph during a mission to survey Yakutat Icefield and nearby glaciers in southeast Alaska.

The beach and stream in the photograph are in Russel Fjord near the terminus of the Hubbard Glacier. While this photograph does not show any glaciers, evidence of their presence is all around. Meltwater winds down a vegetation-free path of glacial till. On its way toward open water, the stream cuts through a beach strewn with icebergs. “The Hubbard Glacier has a broad and active calving front providing a generous supply of icebergs,” said Larsen, a researcher at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. “They are present all summer since new ones keep coming from the glacier.”

NASA’s Operation IceBridge makes lengthy flights each year over the landmasses of Greenland and Antarctica and their surrounding sea ice. While IceBridge-Alaska flights are shorter in length, the terrain is equally majestic and its snow and ice important to monitor. Wherever IceBridge flights are made, data collection depends in part on weather and instruments.

Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/2Mj48r0

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Isolation, Hazard of the Mind

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.A human journey to Mars, at first glance, offers an inexhaustible amount of complexities. To bring a mission to the Red Planet from fiction to fact, our Human Research Program has organized hazards astronauts will encounter on a continual basis into five classifications. (View the first hazard). Let’s dive into the second hazard:

Overcoming the second hazard, isolation and confinement, is essential for a successful mission to Mars. Behavioral issues among groups of people crammed in a small space over a long period of time, no matter how well trained they are, are inevitable. It is a topic of study and discussion currently taking place around the selection and composition of crews.

On Earth, we have the luxury of picking up our cell phones and instantly being connected with nearly everything and everyone around us. 

On a trip to Mars, astronauts will be more isolated and confined than we can imagine. 

Sleep loss, circadian desynchronization (getting out of sync), and work overload compound this issue and may lead to performance decrements or decline, adverse health outcomes, and compromised mission objectives.

To address this hazard, methods for monitoring behavioral health and adapting/refining various tools and technologies for use in the spaceflight environment are being developed to detect and treat early risk factors. Research is also being conducted in workload and performance, light therapy for circadian alignment or internal clock alignment, and team cohesion.

Exploration to the Moon and Mars will expose astronauts to five known hazards of spaceflight, including isolation and confinement. To learn more, and find out what the Human Research Program is doing to protect humans in space, check out the "Hazards of Human Spaceflight" website. Or, check out this week’s episode of “Houston We Have a Podcast,” in which host Gary Jordan further dives into the threat of isolation and confinement with Tom Williams, a NASA Human Factors and Behavior Performance Element Scientist at the Johnson Space Center. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.