NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter will be attempting another test flight soon, spinning its rotors faster than previous flights to adapt to the changing weather on Mars. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) tweeted about the flight and the engineers will be trying a short flight at a higher rotor speed for flight number 14.

The chopper will be required to spin its rotors faster than it has done earlier because the weather on Mars is changing. The original plan for the helicopter was to perform just five flights, but it has exceeded expectations and continued to take more complex flights. But that means they must now adapt to changing weather on the Red Planet.

Adapting the changing Martian weather

The Martian atmosphere is very thin, around 1% density of Earth’s atmosphere, but seasonal changes mean that it is now getting even thinner. This could be an issue for the chopper, which flies by spinning its rotors to move the air and keep itself airborne.

To deal with the thinning atmosphere, the JPL team is planning to spin the chopper rotors even faster to generate more lift during the flight. However, this involves spinning up the rotors to speeds never tried during testing on Earth. Spinning too fast could also cause problems by creating too much drag or shaking the chopper.

Ensuring safety is important

To ensure safety by spinning at 2,800 rpm, the team performed a high-speed spin test in September. Everything went as planned, and JPL reported that the systems worked “flawlessly.”

The team had to delay a brief hovering exercise on September 18. The failure of the helicopter was considered a good thing, as it detected an anomaly in two flight-control servo motors when it ran a routine preflight check of its systems. The flight cancellation means the chopper won’t try to fly until sometime mid-October. Ingenuity has overcome a technical issue and excelled in its mission in the challenging conditions on the Red Planet.