Mars 2020 (Ingenuity Helicopter)

Launch data: Designation  45983? / 20052? Launch date  30 Jul 2020 - 11:50 UTC Launch site  CC, SLC41 Launch vehicle  Atlas V 541 (AV-088) Mission  Mars helicopter Earth orbit: Perihelion / Aphelion  208 x -68003 Inclination  27.6° Period   min

Ingenuity sitting on the Martian surface on April 7, 2021. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Spacecraft data:

Mission details:

• NASA′s Mars 2020 mission was launched from Cape Canaveral by a ULA Atlas V 541, mission AV-088, on Jul 30, 2020. Launch was at 1150 UTC, with parking orbit insertion at 1201 UTC into a 167 x 250 km x 29.1 deg orbit. At 1235 UTC the Centaur stage restarted to accelerate the vehicle to an escape hyperbola with C3 = 14.49 km2/s2.
• The Mars 2020 spacecraft consists of the cruise stage (mass about 539 kg; 0.6m high 4.4m dia cylinder) and the entry vehicle. The entry vehicle is 4.5m dia with a backshell, parachute, and aeroshell (heat shield), containing the Perseverance Rover (1025 kg, 2.1m x 1.5m). The backshell is about 294 kg, the heat shield 382 kg, and the 21.5m diameter parachute is 55 kg. Perseverance is similar in design to Curiosity.
• Attached to the rover is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a 1.8 kg 1.2m-span technology-test rotorcraft, contained within the MHDS (Mars Helicopter Delivery System) cover, which will be jettisoned from the rover. The helicopter will make 90-second flights up to 5 metres altitude.
• Mars 2020 was landing on Mars at Feb 18 (.87), 2021.
• After much anticipation, NASA′s first-ever Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has successfully completed its first test flight, which took place on Monday, April 19 at approximately 3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT). The communications data confirming the flight was received in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA′s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).
  The NASA livestream covering the test flight began at 6:15 a.m. EDT (3:15 a.m. PDT).
  A postflight briefing was then held at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT).

External links:

• Spaceflight Now: 2021/04/23NASA′s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight.
• AmericaSpace: 2021/04/19-NASA′s Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Achieves Historic First Powered Flight on Another World
• EOportal: Mars 2020