On the Operational Challenges of Coordinating a Helicopter and Rover Mission on Mars

In April 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter achieved the first powered flight on another planet. In its first flight, the helicopter rose to a 3-meter altitude, performed a hover, and softly landed back on the surface of Mars. The entire feat was filmed by its host mission: the Perseverance rover. In the month following this event, Ingenuity achieved four more flights, each more ambitious than the last. Each flight was carefully coordinated with the rover and included imaging, video, and even audio of the flights. The path to achieving this first flight was not only a set of groundbreaking technological advancements, but also involved highly complex operations that had to be coordinated across two different projects - something that is rarely done on surfaces of other planets. This paper provides a look into the operational challenges of coordinating the interface between the Ingenuity and Perseverance spacecrafts and the lessons learned along the way, with the hope of informing future missions attempting a similar type of interface. Notably, the importance of establishing clear sets of responsibilities, of testing both the system and the processes, and of building clear decision points as well as flexibility into operations plans are highlighted as key factors in ensuring the success of such coordinated missions.