NASA flies spacecraft all over the solar system, and orbits the Earth.
How do we communicate with them when they're so far away?
Let's find out from an expert.
Hi, I'm Jim Green, Chief Scientist at NASA and this is the Gravity Assist Podcast.
In this season of Gravity Assist, we'll go behind the scenes at NASA and we'll hear from
the scientists and engineers and others who make these amazing space missions happen.
I'm here with Nacer Chahat, and he is the Senior Antenna and Microwave Engineer with
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory out in Pasadena, California.
Well, you know, communication with our surface assets on Mars is kind of complicated.
You know, when we landed Curiosity, I don't see it carrying a big truck with a big dish
behind it.
So how do we communicate back and forth with, with our surface assets, like Insight, like
Perseverance, like Curiosity?
Yes, so we have two concepts to do so.
The first one is to communicate with the orbiter.
So we have orbiters around Mars which we can they are dedicated for science, but for a
critical event like that, we can use them to relay the data to Earth.
And we also have on these landers and rover, high-gain antennas that allow us to communicate
directly with Earth but a lower that rate.
So it's really a trade off, when we should be using the orbiter or when we should be
using the high-gain antenna.
Most of the time, we end up using the orbiter because it allows us to transmit the science
much faster.
Well, you know, we're flying a helicopter on Mars for the first time.
And we call that Ingenuity.
Did you get involved in that?
And what's your role?
My contribution was with the telecommunication subsystem, to ensure that the rover can send
commands to the helicopter, and the helicopter can send images or telemetry back to the rover.
So, I worked on the antenna design and also worked on the system engineering.
Wow, that sounds really difficult because this is a very small vehicle.
What's that antenna look like?
I don't remember seeing it.
Does it stick out?
Or is it part of it goes up to the top or, where's it at?
Yeah, so on the top of the helicopter, there is a solar panel, which allows us to recharge
our battery.
And we decided to locate the antenna on this surface, because this is what provided the
largest area to use as a reflective surface.
So this is the simplest type of antenna that you can ever use.
This is called a monopole.
So monopole is basically a single wire.
This type of monopole antenna are being used when you need to communicate omnidirectionally.
Meaning, we need to communicate this with the same capabilities in any direction.
It's very small - it's about five to six centimeter
So it sounds like though the Ingenuity communication is only with, with Perseverance, and then
it's up to Perseverance to package that data and then send it up to an orbiter which then
relays it back to Earth.
That's exactly it.
Altimeter data confirms that Ingenuity has performed its first flight of a powered aircraft
on another planet!
[cheering]
When I saw the first flight, I couldn't help but think of all of those hours working really
hard to solve technical problems.
This achievement is absolutely historical and I am happy I got to contribute.