Wednesday 19 August 2020

Wednesday 19 August - Mars 2020 Mars Ingenuity Helicopter

On 7 August, one week into its journey, Mars helicopter charged its batteries in flight for the first time in a space environment. It took eight hours for engineers at JPL to analyse the performance of the six lithium-ion batteries and bring their charge up to 35%, a low level charge state having been shown to be optimal for battery health during the nearly seven month long cruise to Mars.

The operation will be repeated every two weeks or so to maintain the optimal charge.

"This charge activity shows we have survived the launch and that so far we can handle the harsh environment of interplanetary space", said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL. "We have a lot more firsts to go before we can attempt the first experimental flight test on another planet, but right now we are all feeling good about the future"

The helicopter will have a 30 Martian day (31 Earth days) flight test window and if successful will prove that powered flight is possible on another planet. This will allow for possible future aerial explorations of Mars with a second generation rotorcraft. (NASA JPL-Caltech) 

                                                                Courtesy NASA JPL - Caltech

And wait... I have had Perseverance and Ingenuity in our garden and sitting room. The following photographs are not photoshopped but are taken using an app from JPL. Sizing is unfortunately limited by the iPhone's screen size. 












Index to Mars 2020 posts: here
at

8 comments:

  1. AlanR19 August 2020 at 15:57

    Thanks for posting. It's all very interesting.
    I watched a program on TV today about the new solid state batteries which will eventually take over from lithium ion batteries. Lots more power, less charge time and work in higher temperatures. It's taken 30 yrs of research but they are almost there. They said car batteries and other large commercials will get them first but with further developments it won't be long before phones have them too. 30 yrs on a battery, amazing.

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  2. Sir Hugh20 August 2020 at 07:41

    The advances made by humans during my lifetime are mind-boggling. The speed of "progress" is rampant and I wonder if and how it may continue at that speed and if so what may be achieved.

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  3. afootinthehills20 August 2020 at 08:51

    Hi Alan - glad you found it interesting. I get a lot of pleasure from writing these posts. I missed the programme you mention but was vaguely aware that good progress was being made on solid state batteries. I know MIT and Samsung were working on it and Toyota reckoned production could start in 2025. All that information could be out of date now of course. By the way, I subscribe to your blog by email but don’t get notifications when you post.

    It’s good to see you back blogging Alan.

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  4. afootinthehills20 August 2020 at 10:26

    Sir Hugh - the scientific and technological achievements have been quite astonishing and I find it breathtaking that in under 120 years from the first powered flight on Earth, we will hopefully see Ingenuity make the first powered flight on another world next year. I can’t see any reason why this progress won’t continue in the physical sciences, engineering and the like.

    On a different topic, I was saddened to learn that mountaineer Doug Scott has inoperable brain cancer.

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  5. AlanR20 August 2020 at 12:39

    Hi Gibson,
    I cannot sus out why this is happening but Blogger are aware of the problem and looking on the forum I am not the only one. It’s probably another part of blogger that isn’t being maintained. Thanks for letting me know because without folk like you I would never know there was an issue. Hopefully it will get sorted but I won’t hold my breath.

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  6. afootinthehills20 August 2020 at 14:32

    Thanks Alan. I doubt it’s a general problem with Blogger because I subscribe to Conrad, Martin and AlanS’s blog and get notifications of posts. I’ll just have to check your blog out regularly.

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    Replies
    1. AlanR25 August 2020 at 16:32

      Hi Gibson, I couldn’t get the subscribe button to work and so I have deleted it. I have added a follow by email link which I think works but I need someone to try it. If you would please, when you get chance, try it. I will just do a test post when I know you have linked. Thanks. Alan

      Delete
  7. afootinthehills25 August 2020 at 16:39

    Hi Alan - that’s my email registered.

    ReplyDelete