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Boise State professor discovers new Mars weather data

Physics professor Brian Jackson, dust devil research, Alvord desert of Eastern Oregon.
John Kelly
/
Boise State University
Physics professor Brian Jackson, dust devil research, Alvord desert of Eastern Oregon.

In February of 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars. The rover carried a small drone called Ingenuity, designed to test potential air travel on the red planet.

Boise State physics professor Brian Jackson worked with NASA to get access to Ingenuity flight data. He used it to analyze Martian weather patterns.

“People have been using data from the engineering sensors and aerial drones for a while to measure winds, wind speeds and directions. But no one had really done it … at all for Mars,” said Jackson.

Jackson’s team used complex physics equations and videos of Ingenuity’s flights to calculate the wind speed and velocity of Mars’ atmosphere up to 60 feet above the planet’s surface. His study was accepted by the Planetary Science Journal late last year.

Zoomed-in view of Ingenuity’s fuselage and interior, as adapted from the Mars 2020 Software Interface Specification. The helicopter camera locations and viewing frustrums are shown. The yaw (z), pitch (y), and roll (x) axes are also shown. For example, a given pitch angle corresponds to a right-handed rotation about the y axis.
Brian Jackson
/
Cornell University
Zoomed-in view of Ingenuity’s fuselage and interior, as adapted from the Mars 2020 Software Interface Specification. The helicopter camera locations and viewing frustrums are shown. The yaw (z), pitch (y), and roll (x) axes are also shown. For example, a given pitch angle corresponds to a right-handed rotation about the y axis.

“The numbers that we got were surprising. The winds seemed like they were blowing a lot harder than anyone expected,” Jackson said.

Jackson says his Boise-based weather research could help with planning human missions to Mars in the coming decades.

“We hope someday to send people to Mars, and understanding what the weather is doing is going to be very important for safety and effective navigation of Mars by people,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s research team has analyzed wind data from only seven of Ingenuity’s 72 flights. The team will continue the project when more data becomes available from NASA.

I’m a Boise-born writer who loves composing anything from horror screenplays to investigative news pieces. I’ve been writing movies and news stories ever since I made my first short films and news packages in 6th grade. I’m now in my junior year at Boise State University, pursuing a double major in Humanities & Cultural Studies and Film & Television Arts.

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