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The helicopter made a short jump to help the crew better understand why its previous flight was cancelled. On August 3, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter successfully completed its
The helicopter made a short jump to help the crew better understand why its previous flight was cancelled. On August 3, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter successfully completed its 54th flight. This was the helicopter’s first flight since it was forced to interrupt its flight on July 22. A brief 25-second descent and ascent during Flight 54 provided data that could help the Ingenuity crew determine the reasons for Flight 53’s premature termination.
Flight 53 was planned for the Perseverance rover science team as a 136-second reconnaissance flight dedicated to collecting images of the planet’s surface. The complex flight profile included flying 666 feet (203 meters) north at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) and at a speed of 5.6 mph (2.5 meters per second). The helicopter then descended vertically 8 feet (2.5 meters) and captured the image of the rocky ledge. Ingenuity then had to climb 33 feet (10 meters) before the hazard avoidance system could fire (see video below) before descending vertically and descending.
In this video, footage from NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Flight 9 on July 5, 2021 was rendered using the helicopter’s hazard avoidance capabilities added in a helicopter software update late in 2022. The update includes two major improvements: it identifies non-landing areas (shaded in red) and possible landing sites (shown in green). The algorithm also allows the use of digital elevation maps to facilitate navigation. Credits: NASA/ JPL -Caltech
However, things did not go as planned. Before the emergency flight program was activated, Ingenuity was only able to fly 466 feet (142 meters) north at its intended altitude, resulting in an automatic landing. This shortened flight took 74 seconds.
“From the very first flight, we included a program called ‘LAND_NOW’, which is designed to bring the helicopter to the surface as quickly as possible should any of a few dozen non-standard scenarios arise,” said team leader Teddy Tsanetos. Honorary award for creativity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We encountered one of these on Flight 53 and the helicopter operated as planned and landed immediately.”
Perseverance seen from above during Flight 54: This image of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, seen above right of center, was taken by the Ingenuity Mars helicopter at an altitude of about 16 feet (5 meters) during its 54th flyby on August 3. 2023 is the 872nd Martian day of the mission or sol. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Ingenuity team believes the early landing was due to the image frames from the helicopter’s navigation camera not being synchronized as expected with the data from the helicopter’s inertial measurement unit. The device measures data that allows Ingenuity to estimate acceleration and rotation rates, where the helicopter is, how fast it is moving, and how it is oriented in space. This isn’t the first time a helicopter’s Navcam has dropped footage in flight. As recently as May 22, 2021, several frames were taken, causing excessive pitch and yaw towards the end of Flight 6.
After Flight 6, the crew updated the flight software to help mitigate the effects of the missed footage, and the fix worked well for the next 46 flights. On Flight 53, however, the number of reset navigation images exceeded what the software patch allowed.
“While we hoped never to launch LAND_NOW, this flight is a valuable case study that will benefit future aircraft operating on other worlds,” Tsanetos said. “The team is working to better understand what happened on Flight 53, and with the success of Flight 54, we’re confident that our baby is ready to continue frontflight on Mars.”
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Ingenuity’s mission to Mars started out as a simple technology demonstration. It made its maiden flight on April 19, 2021, hovering for 30 seconds at an altitude of 10 feet (3 meters). Within weeks, four more flights added 499 seconds and saw the helicopter fly horizontally at 1,171 feet (357 meters) above the surface. After Ingenuity proved that flight to Mars was possible, it began a demonstration phase of operations in May 2021 to demonstrate how aerial exploration could benefit future exploration of Mars and other worlds.
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter was built by JPL, which also led the NASA headquarters project. It is sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA Ames Research Center in California Silicon Valley and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during the development of Ingenuity. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and key vehicle components. Lockheed Space has developed and manufactured a helicopter delivery system to Mars. Source
Source: Port Altele
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