NASA Suspended Perseverance Operations to Save Mars Helicopter

It’s hard to overstate the importance of NASA’s Perseverance rover, which is only beginning its exploration of the red planet. This robot is bristling with advanced instruments that could help reveal evidence of past Martian life, but this has almost been overshadowed by a mere technology demonstration that was along for the ride. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has exceeded all expectations, but its days might be numbered. Following a recent power issue, NASA suspended the rover’s mission in hopes of saving the aircraft. It worked, but the approaching winter likely means the end for the history-making helicopter.

Perseverance is based on the Curiosity chassis, a design we know from experience is robust enough to survive years on Mars. Ingenuity was a bit of a Hail Mary—NASA didn’t build it with hardened, space-tested components and advanced instruments. Ingenuity is composed of off-the-shelf hardware like a Snapdragon 801 smartphone processor and conventional lithium-ion batteries. The goal was simply to see if a helicopter could work on Mars, and it turns out that it can—surprisingly well.

As Perseverance was preparing to land on Mars, we talked to JPL’s Adam Steltzner, who said that the team did not expect Ingenuity to last long enough to impact the mission. However, more than a year later the helicopter has made 27 flights covering seven kilometers. Everything was going better than expected until May 3rd when Ingenuity dropped offline. The helicopter had been having issues with dust accumulating on its solar panels, and it lost power that night. The flight computer shut down, as did the heaters necessary to keep the batteries functional.

The team hoped Ingenuity would wake up again when the sun rose on the red planet, but it didn’t. They theorized the issue was the internal clock, which needs to remain synchronized with Perseverance. The helicopter doesn’t have enough power to transmit back to Earth itself, so it connects to the rover. If the clocks don’t match, Ingenuity would try to talk to Perseverance when the rover was busy doing other things. Not wanting to lose Ingenuity, NASA decided to take a radical step; all of Perseverance’s science operations were suspended so it could just listen for Ingenuity’s call.

Thankfully, the helicopter did connect again about 24 hours later. NASA reports that Ingenuity was able to recharge its batteries to 41 percent, and it should be ready to fly again in the coming days. These issues will only become more severe as time goes on, though. Mars is heading into winter, and the frigid nighttime temperatures of -195 degrees Fahrenheit (-125 degrees Celsius) will most likely prove too much for the robot’s meager power reserves.

Going forward, Ingenuity will only power on its heaters when the temperature hits -40 degrees Fahrenheit (and Celsius). That should give Ingenuity a little more time before the end, but even in death, this interplanetary aircraft has changed the way we explore Mars.

Continue reading

Interview: NASA’s Adam Steltzner Talks Perseverance and Why We Shouldn’t Colonize Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover is set to touch down on Mars in the coming days, and we had the opportunity to talk to one of the people who had a hand in bringing this mission to fruition.

WATCH: Perseverance Lands on Mars Today in ‘7 Minutes of Terror’

It's almost time for Perseverance to join Curiosity on the surface of Mars. Here's how to watch the landing.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Successfully Lands on Mars

NASA used Curiosity as a model for this new robot, but its instrument suite is upgraded to scour the red planet for signs of ancient life. This mission will also be the first leg in a three-part process to get bits of Mars back to Earth for more intense study. And it all starts today.

NASA Releases Incredible Perseverance Rover Landing Video

NASA's Perseverance rover has been on the surface of Mars for several days, giving the team here on Earth time to run system checks and download preliminary data from the robot. The agency has now released the first large batch of media from the mission, including hundreds of still images and the first video and audio ever recorded on Mars.