It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA’s helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn’t ready to retire.

Given its stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency has extended Ingenuity’s mission indefinitely.

The tiny helicopter has become the regular travel companion of the rover Perseverance, whose core mission is to seek signs of ancient life on Mars.

“Everything is working so well,” said Josh Ravich, the head of Ingenuity’s mechanical engineering team. “We’re doing better on the surface than we had expected.”

….Ingenuity is now being sent out to scout the way for Perseverance, using its high-resolution color camera.

The purpose is twofold: to chart a path for the rover that is safe, but also which is of scientific interest, notably in geological terms.

Ken Farley, who heads Perseverance’s science team, explained how photos taken by Ingenuity during its 12th flight showed that a region dubbed South Seitha was of less interest than scientists had hoped.

As a result, the rover might not be sent there.

Full Report

Bubblecar said:

It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA’s helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn’t ready to retire.

Given its stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency has extended Ingenuity’s mission indefinitely.

The tiny helicopter has become the regular travel companion of the rover Perseverance, whose core mission is to seek signs of ancient life on Mars.

“Everything is working so well,” said Josh Ravich, the head of Ingenuity’s mechanical engineering team. “We’re doing better on the surface than we had expected.”

….Ingenuity is now being sent out to scout the way for Perseverance, using its high-resolution color camera.

The purpose is twofold: to chart a path for the rover that is safe, but also which is of scientific interest, notably in geological terms.

Ken Farley, who heads Perseverance’s science team, explained how photos taken by Ingenuity during its 12th flight showed that a region dubbed South Seitha was of less interest than scientists had hoped.

As a result, the rover might not be sent there.

Full Report

Excellent.

> It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA’s helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn’t ready to retire.

Nice! Before it landed, nobody woul even tell me if it was supposed to fly more than once.

….Ingenuity is now being sent out to scout the way for Perseverance, using its high-resolution color camera.

Excellent!

I saw that earlier, quite impressive.
A shame there’s not a bit more atmosphere, I reckon an inflatable/deflatable hydrogen balloon with a camera hanging under it could have worked pretty well.

I wonder how the solar panels on the top of the drone are cleaned? The seem quite dusty in most of the photos I’ve seen of it. I don’t think they’d get a lot of airflow with the rotors spinning that would blow/suck the dust off the panels.

Ingenuity’s ability to fly is being challenged by a drop in atmospheric density in Jezero Crater. Amanda Kooser takes up the story:

Havard Grip, Ingenuity’s chief pilot, talked about the challenges facing the chopper in a NASA status update this week. The density of the atmosphere in the Jezero Crater is dropping, a factor Grip said has “a significant impact on Ingenuity’s ability to fly.”

Atmospheric density — which can fluctuate over time and with seasonal changes — affects how much thrust Ingenuity needs to get off the ground and climb through the air. Lower density makes it harder to do these tasks. Even full-size helicopters on Earth must take atmospheric density into consideration. Ingenuity was optimized to work in an atmosphere on Mars that is about 1.2-1.5% of Earth’s at sea level, but the rotorcraft has stuck around long enough to experience a change in conditions.

This doesn’t mean Ingenuity will be grounded. “Thankfully, there is a way to tackle this issue, but it involves spinning the rotors even faster than we have been doing up to now,” Grip said. “In fact, they will have to spin faster than we have ever attempted with Ingenuity or any of our test helicopters on Earth.”

https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-flying-the-mars-ingenuity-helicopter-is-getting-harder-and-harder/

Kingy said:

Too late, it only heard the “NO”.