“Outgassing clouds camera lenses, creates
corrosion, and clogs sensors,” says Sean Johnson, thermoset product manager at Toray Advanced Composites, which provided advanced com- posites for Ingenuity. Astroquartz is another unusual material and is used on the rover. “Tese are fibers that are woven into a fabric to cover and protect antennas with minimal signal interference,” he adds. A variety of layered composite tapes is used
to reinforce and strengthen the blades. “You can have a surface that’s very thin but with a large number of plies to reduce stress,” says Johnson. Materials used to build the helicopter, Johnson
adds, must be able to withstand extreme vibration and extreme temperatures and resist contamination, radiation, and microcracking. Te constant cycle of extreme heat and cold in space can cause some materials to suffer very fine cracks that can lead to structural failure. Materials from Toray Advanced Composites
have been used in every Mars rover. “We have a nearly 30-year history in space programs,” Johnson says. “Our products have even left the solar system on [NASA’s] New Horizons spacecraft [launched in 2006, primarily to study Pluto].” Ingenuity not only has set new benchmarks
in rotorcraft aviation; it’s pushed the envelope in space-vehicle manufacturing, as well. “Tere’s an aversion to taking risks in manufacturing, especially in aerospace,” Pipenberg points out. “NASA allowed for this to be a high-risk pro- gram. We needed to figure out what we didn’t know. Ingenuity is really an appropriate name.” Te AeroVironment team also traded con-
vention for increased efficiency. “We had our engineers building the hardware, [eliminating] a layer of manufacturing,” says Pipenberg. “Tis allowed us to move quickly, reduce errors, and improve communication.” Tere’s an upside to high-risk missions like
Ingenuity that rely on “space-qualified” off- the-shelf components, parts that have already met certain standards and have a proven performance record. Using those materials saves time and money and minimizes loss in case the mission fails, explains JPL’s Ravich. “Tis avoids all the testing you need for a
part to be space qualified,” Ravich says. “Te screening is already done.” Ravich says almost everything except Ingenuity’s framework and structural connections are off the shelf. A few distributors for the Ingenuity project
are household names; others are better known in aerospace circles. Among the major com- ponents and vendors: battery, Sony Group; radio, LS Research; servos, Maxon; inclinometer,
Murata Manufacturing; inertia measurement units (accelerometers and gyroscopes), Bosch; navigation processor, Qualcomm; cameras, Sunny Optical Technology; and altimeter, Garmin. “Te off-the-shelf components for our
guidance and navigation systems are doing great, as is our rotor system,” Ravich adds. “You name it, and it’s doing just fine or better.”
HAI MEMBERS Save Money on Your Online Helicopter FIRC!
ONLY HAI MEMBERS SAVE $25 on their KING Online Helicopter FIRC. Log on at
rotor.org and visit the Discount Program page under the Members tab to fi nd this and other great deals, only for HAI members.
Questions? Contact
member@rotor.org
(425) 526-7566 JUNE 2021 ROTOR 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
