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Completed TRL 3 (started at 2, targeting 4)
This task has developed enabling technology for next-generation Mars helicopters capable of carrying several kilograms of science payload. A sub-task at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) focused on avionics, while a sub-task at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) focused on aerodynamics.
The avionics sub-task initially developed a conceptual design for a single-fault tolerant avionics architecture that pairs high-reliability components suitable for Class B missions with high-performance processing for mission-enabling navigation and instrument processing. It has done so by pairing dual-string high-reliability processing cross-strapped with dual-string high performance processing. This allows for a highly resilient system that allows the mission to continue if any component upsets or fails. A representative high-reliability processor was LEON 4, instantiated in the JPL Sabertooth board; a representative high-performance processor was the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 autonomous system-on-a-chip (SoC). Each side of this dual-string architecture contained an IMU, altimeter, and navigation camera. The task then focused on development of a miniaturized UHF radio allowing helicopter communication directly with relay orbiters. This radio concept combined a digital modem implemented in FPGA, a new radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) containing everything needed for RF conversion between the antenna and the digital portions of the modem, a miniaturized solid state power amplifier (SSPA) on the transmit side, a low noise amplifier (LNA) on the receive side, and a monopole antenna. The ability for the relay orbiters to operate in simplex or half-duplex mode was verified in order to allow eliminating a diplexer from the helicopter radio design to save mass.
The aerodynamic sub-task focused on characterizing performance of Mars helicopter blades and rotors in fast forward flight. This required development of a test stand and completion of wind tunnel sections to test in Mars atmospheric density in the Planetary Aeolian Lab (PAL) environmental chamber at ARC. These facilities and tests will be completed by the end of FY24. The results will enable creation of a dynamical simulation model of a full helicopter (e.g. coaxial, quadcopter, or hexcopter) in forward flight at speeds up to approximately 20 m/s.
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter had a mass of 1.8 kg and carried no science instruments per se; it had two cell phone cameras with a combined mass under 2 grams for navigation and reconnaissance, which secondarily served some science functions. Aerodynamic performance of Ingenuity could only be tested in hover and slow forward flight of a few meters/second, due to limitations of test facilities at the time it was developed. Ingenuity used commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics, with a dual-redundant real-time control processor, a single-string navigation processor based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, and single-string sensors and radio. Ingenuity’s radio could only communicate through a nearby rover, which limited Ingenuity’s range to a few hundred meters from the rover. This task developed enabling technology for future science helicopter missions that would have single-fault tolerance avionics with dual-string components, a much more advanced navigation processor, and a miniaturized UHF radio that will enable communication with relay orbiters, which allows the helicopter to traverse arbitrary distances from its initial landing site. Characterization of rotor aerodynamic performance in high-speed forward flight will allow controller design and safe operation at air speeds two or three times that achieved by Ingenuity.
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