The mission of the Martian helicopter Ingenuity has been officially extended until September. As a result, if everything goes well, the helicopter will work on the Red Planet for about a year and a half, and it is not a fact that its mission will really end there.

Less than a year ago, we didn’t even know if controlled helicopter flight was possible on Mars. We are now looking forward to Ingenuity’s participation in the second scientific campaign of Perseverance. Such a transformation of thinking in such a short period is simply amazing and is one of the most historically important in the history of air and space exploration.

As stated on the NASA website, the new region that the helicopter will explore along with the mother rover is completely different from the modest, relatively flat terrain over which it flew before. A fan-shaped delta several miles wide, formed by an ancient river, rises more than 40 meters above the crater floor. Filled with jagged rocks, sloping surfaces, protruding boulders, and sand-filled pockets that could stall a rover (or flip a helicopter on landing), the delta promises plenty of geological discoveries — perhaps even the evidence needed to determine that microscopic life existed on Earth. Mars billions of years ago

As part of the new stage, the helicopter will have a very important and applied mission: to determine which of the two dry channels the Perseverance rover will go. Among other things, data from the helicopter will help scientists identify potential targets.

NASA also notes that a number of helicopter software updates have led to a decrease in navigation errors during flight, which has increased the safety of both flight and landing. A recent software change removes the original 15m height limit for Ingenuity. An increase in altitude can lead to a gradual increase in both speed and range. The second update allows Ingenuity to change the flight speed directly during the flight. Future software updates may include the addition of terrain elevation maps to the navigation filter and the ability to avoid landing hazards.

Separately, it is worth recalling that Ingenuity is unique in one more feature. While all modern interplanetary spacecraft and rovers are always based on very old processors specially protected from radiation, the helicopter relies on the usual consumer SoC Snapragon 801. Regarding it, scientists had doubts about whether it could withstand increased levels of radiation. As you can see, the brainchild of Qualcomm easily worked many times longer than NASA scientists originally planned. Perhaps this will encourage engineers to use more modern solutions for some spacecraft in the future.

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