Mission Mars2020 The Spanish station sends its first meteorological report from Mars
Perseverance The "epic" videos and audios of Perseverance that take us to Mars
Engineers mission of the rover
Perseverance
of
NASA
to
Mars
said Monday that the helicopter
Ingenuity
had overcome smoothly its first cold night alone on the
Red Planet
.
With temperatures reaching minus 90 ° C, cold Martian nights pose a real challenge for helicopter electronics: unprotected electrical components can freeze and crack and damage the on-board batteries needed for flight, NASA reports.
Earlier, while Ingenuity was preparing its mission, the Perseverance rover picked up a strange rock from the Martian surface.
"While the helicopter prepares, I cannot avoid observing the nearby rocks," said the Twitter account associated with the mission, which speaks through the voice of the explorer.
"This strange one has my scientific team considering many hypotheses."
"It's about 6 inches long," Perseverance describes, "if you look closely you might see the row of laser marks I made to get more information."
Survival in the frigid Martian night
It was on Sunday when the Ingenuity helicopter finally landed on the surface of Mars, after completing the deployment maneuver and lowered to the surface from the underside of the Perseverance rover.
Once deposited on the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover drifted away from the helicopter.
Thus, on Sunday the last 10 centimeters of descent from the rover's belly to the surface of Mars were completed.
Before letting go completely, Ingenuity took the opportunity to charge its batteries to 100 percent thanks to its connection with the Perseverance rover, but from now on, it will have to do so through its solar panels autonomously.
Now, Ingenuity will have to fend for himself and try to survive the cold Martian nights on his own.
The Ingenuity team will monitor the temperatures and performance of the battery recharge over the next several days.
If everything looks good, then the next steps will come: unlocking the rotor blades and testing all the motors and sensors, to prepare to begin the flight tests, now scheduled for no earlier than April 11th.
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