Mars Helicopter (before it went to Mars)

The Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity aims to make the first powered flight on another planet when it takes off on Mars. It has now landed and safely checked in with the rover. It should detach and fly within the first 30-60 days of the mission. I learned a lot getting to visit the drone right before it was mounted on the rover at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

How do you fly in 1% of Earth's atmosphere:
Have large rotors (they are 1.2m in diameter) and spin them very fast, around 2500 RPM (5x the speed of a helicopter on Earth).

Plus the aircraft has to be light:
The Mars helicopter weighs in at 1.8kg or around the same as a laptop. Every piece had to be stripped down for weight. Instead of using aerogel for insulation, the craft makes use of CO2 gaps between components. Even aerogel was too heavy!

One of the major challenges is surviving the Martian night:
Temperatures plunge to -80C to -100C so two thirds of the craft's power is actually used to keep its electronics warm. Only one third is used for flying. The estimated flight time is 90 seconds.

The craft can't be driven remotely, it will have to fly autonomously, using its own sensor suite to determine how to fly. The round trip 20 minute delay with Earth means steering the craft from mission control would be impossible.

Huge Thanks to Patreon Supporters:
Philipp Volgger, Chris Vargas, Ron Neal, Alfred Wallace, Colin Bellmore, Michael Krugman, James Knight, Donal Botkin, Sam Lutfi, Mohammed Al Sahaf, Kevin Beavers, Chuck Lauer Vose, Bryan Baker, James Wong, kkm, Manuel Zürcher, Tige Thorman, Jasper Xin, Leah Howard, Daniel Milum, Mathias Göransson, Stan Presolski, Lyvann Ferrusca, Arjun Chakroborty, June Kang, Listen Money Matters, Pindex, Joar Wandborg, DALE HORNE, Parker Linn, Roberto Rezende

Jonny Hyman was a legend in editing, animation, filming, and sound design for this video.

[nicoyou]

You know what was amazing, is to see such excitement of every person interviewed in this video, including you Derek! Truly amazing, what a great future!

[johncoppock]

Now that ingenuity's mission has ended and we have seen its amazing capabilities, it was great to come back here and be reminded of all the hopes we had for this little craft. It's kinda like seeing baby pictures. It was truly an amazing machine. I feel like I lost some kind of friend.

Thank you, Derek, for being there to show us the early days.

[RDinternet]

I love the concept "11:00 AM Local Time on Mars"

[conanichigawa]

Time to edit the title again Derek! Mission was a success!

[Toraxa]

You know you're dealing with some razor-thin margins when aerogel is a weight concern.

[aerospacenews]

Derek, great job. How wonderful that you had a chance to see the actual flight hardware before it was buttoned up and installed on the rover.

[natdrat]

I never thought I would hear of Aerogel being to heavy for an application.

[mobius_one]

Time to change the title to "This helicopter has flown on Mars!"

[WhileTrueCode]

these intellectual interviews are FASCINATING. thank you for sharing

[Sami.curiouslab]

this is the most underrated thing right now, it made me speechless, autonomous flying on mars, are you kidding ! we live in the future

[JoseEduardo-fnni]

"Eleven O' Clock in the Morning, local time on Mars" That's the coolest way to tell the time I've ever heard

[AnthonyHigham]

Originally designed to make five flights over a thirty day period. As of its 51st flight on April 23, 2023, the helicopter has been flightworthy for 734 days. Now that's impressive.

[TheMurmuringGolem]

How to tell if a video will be interesting: "I'm at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory..."

[Mattspace]

Great video Derek! It was nice to meet you at JPL when you were filming this, keep making great videos!

[purplecircle]

“Hi do you guys sell rigid fishing line”

“Yea what’s it for”

“Oh uhhhh? M A R S C O P T E R”

[TheMildaBlack]

Who is there after the new video about Ingenuity? Perfect little machine🖤

[Furiends]

"Your thrust vector now has a component that's horizontal in the direction that you pitched. Right. So then you start translating in that direction." Confirmed, this guy is definitely an engineer.

[gennik]

They let this guy go everywhere. He should ask to go to Area 51. He will be our inside man.

[Jake]

The most important question: How long until we can fly it over Opportunity to blow the dust off her solar panels and revive her?

[Jeff-jgjh]

I always like to see interviews of very smart people who are in very important positions. They are always so cool and down to Earth. You know what I mean.