Ingenuity Spots Gear That Helped Perseverance Rover Land
By Jinge Tan
Mars is extremely barren, but it is still uncertain whether there is life on Mars. Now, three Mars rovers are looking for three areas on Mars where life is suspected. They are the Chinese Zhurong, the American Perseverance and the American Curiosity. Of course, there is also a Mars helicopter – Ingenuity[1].
Zhurong
Ingenuity
Perseverance
Curiosity
A Broken Dish
On flight 26 on April 19, 2022, Ingenuity photographed a broken dish, what was it?
A Broken Dish
On April 28, NASA showed the disc picture taken by the Ingenuity and explained: it is actually the protective back cover when Perseverance lands on the surface of Mars – Perseverance will fly to the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 km / h when it lands on Mars, and the fierce friction makes the outer surface of Perseverance produce thousands of degrees Celsius of high temperature, at this time Perseverance needs a heat shield to protect.
Perseverance has two heat shields, one is the bottom cover and the other is the back cover, they are both disc-shaped, and the two together are like the flying saucers we imagined.
NASA said the protective layer of the back cover appeared to be unscathed when it entered the Martian atmosphere. Of the 80 high-strength suspension lines that connect the back cover and the parachute, many of the lines are clearly visible and appear to be undamaged. The dust-covered parachute is 21.5 meters wide and can now only be seen for about a third.
Eyeing some of the components that enabled the rover to get safely to the Martian surface could provide valuable insights for future missions.
The protective back cover when Perseverance lands on the surface of Mars
Making The protective back cover
The Flight
The horizontal distance of this flight is 360 meters, the maximum flight altitude is 8 meters, the maximum ground speed is 3.8 meters per second, and the flight time is 159 seconds. According to NASA records, since its successful maiden flight last April, Witty has flown a total of 6,184 meters, with a total flight duration of about 49.2 minutes.
NASA said that in addition to helping Perseverance plan its route, the data provided by Wit will help the Perseverance team assess potential scientific targets, image geological features in distant areas that the rover can’t reach, or reconnoiter Mars landing areas and locations where samples are stored for the Mars Sample Return Program.
“NASA extended Ingenuity flight operations to perform pioneering flights such as this,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s team lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Every time we’re airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve. Mars Sample Return’s reconnaissance request is a perfect example of the utility of aerial platforms on Mars.”
References:
[1]Mars Helicopter – NASA Mars
[2]NASA’s Mars Helicopter Spots Gear That Helped Perseverance Rover Land | NASA
So glad to hear that