Skip to main content

NASA’s plan to save the Ingenuity helicopter from the cold Martian nights

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has captured the world’s affection with its explorations of Mars which have been far more successful than even the most optimistic predictions. But after 28 flights, the helicopter is beginning to suffer from the harsh conditions of the Martian winter.

With seasonal changes on Mars, there is more and more dust in the atmosphere, and that is causing problems for Ingenuity and threatening the helicopter’s future. That’s because dust gets whipped up in the thin atmosphere and settles on the helicopter’s solar panel, which lessens the amount of power it can collect from the sun. The helicopter already experienced an issue where communications with it were lost due to a lack of power, which had caused the helicopter’s internal clock to reset and which meant it missed its check-in with the Perseverance rover.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

In a NASA blog post, Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos explained that the team expects Ingenuity to have ongoing power shortages throughout the Martian winter, which lasts until September or October.

Recommended Videos

“Challenges like these are to be expected: After hundreds of sols and dozens of flights beyond the five flights originally planned, the solar-powered helicopter is in uncharted terrain,” Tzanetos wrote. “We are now operating far outside our original design limits. Historically, Mars is very challenging for spacecraft (particularly solar-powered spacecraft). Each sol could be Ingenuity’s last.”

The main threat to Ingenuity is the cold. The heaters which keep Ingenuity warm at night use a lot of power, and as the nights are getting colder they are needed more. But with less power, Ingenuity can no longer run its heaters all night, so some of its components will drop below their nominal temperatures some of the time. This will damage the hardware over time, but it’s hard to predict exactly how long the components will last.

The team’s first priority now is to get all of the data off Ingenuity and copied over to the helicopter base station to ensure that as much data as possible is saved. Then they want to keep Ingenuity flying as long as possible. They plan to perform a test spin of the helicopter’s rotors before each flight, to check that everything is working and has not been damaged by the overnight cold. If the test looks good, they will be able to go ahead with flight 29 as planned within the next few days.

They will keep in daily communication with Ingenuity by contacting it each morning when it is most likely to have enough power to try booting up, in a process called a search activity. This lets them reset Ingenuity’s onboard clock and schedule any activities for the day, to make the most use of what power they have.

“All telemetry downlinked so far suggests that Ingenuity is healthy, with no signs of damage from the overnight cold cycles,” Tzanetos wrote. “This morning search followed by evening activities is our new normal for the immediate future.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
NASA spacewalk called off due to dramatic water leak from astronaut’s spacesuit
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps (center) is pictured assisting NASA astronauts Mike Barratt (left) and Tracy C. Dyson (right) inside the Quest airlock.

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps (center) assists NASA astronauts Mike Barratt (left) and Tracy C. Dyson inside the Quest airlock. NASA TV

A spacewalk performed by two NASA astronauts had to be called off early today when one astronaut's spacesuit experienced a water leak shortly after opening the hatch. Both astronauts are safe and out of their spacesuits inside the International Space Station (ISS), but the water leak was dramatic, with astronaut Tracy Dyson telling mission control: "There's water everywhere."

Read more
Auroras and radiation from solar storms spotted on Mars
The specks in this scene were caused by charged particles from a solar storm hitting a camera aboard NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. Curiosity uses its navigation cameras to try and capture images of dust devils and wind gusts, like the one seen here.

The specks in this scene were caused by charged particles from a solar storm hitting a camera aboard NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. Curiosity uses its navigation cameras to try and capture images of dust devils and wind gusts, like the one seen here. NASA/JPL-Caltech

The recent solar storms caused epic events here on Earth, where auroras were visible across much of the globe last month. These storms, caused by heightened activity from the sun, don't only affect our planet though -- they also affect Mars. NASA missions like the Curiosity rover have been observing the effects of solar storms there, where the very thin atmosphere creates a potentially dangerous radiation environment. If we ever want to send people to visit the red planet, we're going to need to learn more about this radiation and how it's affected by events like solar storms.

Read more
NASA to help with the launch of Europe’s unlucky Mars rover
An artist's impression of the Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars.

An artist's impression of the Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars. ESA/Mlabspace

Europe's unlucky Mars rover, known as Rosalind Franklin, has gotten a boost thanks to a new cooperation agreement with NASA. The European Space Agency (ESA) had previously partnered with Russian space agency Roscosmos on the rover project, but that was suspended following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now, NASA has formally agreed to contribute launch services and parts of the landing propulsion system to the project, aiming for a 2028 launch.

Read more