The drone helicopter on board the Perseverance rover has officially touched down on the surface of Mars in preparation for its upcoming flight.
Over the weekend, NASA tweeted out an image, showing the Ingenuity drone chopper successfully standing upright on the Martian surface, and seemingly ready for take off .
The drone rode to Mars while attached to Perseverance’s belly. A debris shield underneath protected the drone during the stunning descent that Perseverance made to land on the Red Planet back in February.
Last month, NASA finally dropped the debris shield, allowing the Ingenuity drone underneath to finally begin emerging from the belly of the rover. However, the whole deployment process has been quite complex. A mechanized arm from the Perseverance rover had to first carefully rotate the drone out of its horizontal position into a vertical alignment. The drone itself then had to extend its four landing legs.
The rover then held Ingenuity about four inches above the Martian soil as the drone chopper charged its battery cells. Last Friday, NASA tweeted out an image, showing Ingenuity preparing to touch the surface during the battery charging phase.
NASA’s plan is to fly Ingenuity for the first time “no earlier than April 11,” according to the space agency’s official website. NASA will first begin “wiggling” the rotor blades on the drone chopper and testing the rotor system before embarking on the first flight. The initial goal is to see if Ingenuity can hover ten feet from the surface for up to 30 seconds.
However, one immediate challenge facing the rover is the frigid temperatures on Mars. A heater on board the Perseverance rover had previously kept the drone helicopter warm. But now Ingenuity must rely on its own internal heater to survive the brutally cold Martian nights, where temperatures can reach -130 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fortunately, Ingenuity has built-in solar panels. So the drone chopper will be able to recharge its batteries once the Sun reappears during the day.
“The team will check the temperatures and the battery recharge performance over the next couple of days,” wrote Bob Balaram, a NASA chief engineer. “If it all looks good, then it’s onto the next steps: unlocking the rotor blades, and testing out all the motors and sensors.”
