Posted on 04/13/2021 11:28:45 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Ingenuity team has identified a software solution for the command sequence issue identified on Sol 49 (April 9) during a planned high-speed spin-up test of the helicopter’s rotors. Over the weekend, the team considered and tested multiple potential solutions to this issue, concluding that minor modification and reinstallation of Ingenuity’s flight control software is the most robust path forward. This software update will modify the process by which the two flight controllers boot up, allowing the hardware and software to safely transition to the flight state. Modifications to the flight software are being independently reviewed and validated today and tomorrow in testbeds at JPL.
Ingenuity Begins to Spin Its Blades NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter does a slow spin test of its blades, on April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This image was captured by the Navigation Cameras on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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While the development of the new software change is straightforward, the process of validating it and completing its uplink to Ingenuity will take some time. A detailed timeline for rescheduling the high-speed spin-up test and first flight is still in process. The process of updating Ingenuity’s flight control software will follow established processes for validation with careful and deliberate steps to move the new software through the rover to the base station and then to the helicopter. Intermediate milestones include:
Diagnose the issue and develop potential solutions Develop/validate and upload software Load flight software onto flight controllers Boot Ingenuity on new flight software Once we have passed these milestones, we will prepare Ingenuity for its first flight, which will take several sols, or Mars days. Our best estimate of a targeted flight date is fluid right now, but we are working toward achieving these milestones and will set a flight date next week. We are confident in the team’s ability to work through this challenge and prepare for Ingenuity’s historic first controlled powered flight on another planet.
Mastcam-Z Ingenuity Close-up NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
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Ingenuity continues to be healthy on the surface on Mars. Critical functions such as power, communications, and thermal control are stable. It is not unexpected for a technology demonstration like this to encounter challenges that need to be worked in real time. The high-risk, high-reward approach we have taken to the first powered, controlled flight on another planet allows us to push the performance envelope in ways we could not with a mission designed to last for years such as Perseverance. In the meantime, while the Ingenuity team does its work, Perseverance will continue to do science with its suite of instruments and is gearing up for a test of the MOXIE technology demonstration.
*BRICKED*
Dominion can handle it with the help of the Chinese...
BSOD on the Red Planet?
Purple Rain.
They had a watchdog timeout that rebooted the drone; it happened when they tried to spin the rotors up to 2400 rpm (which I have to admit is pretty fast for blades that big).
It struck me as pretty remarkable that something as fundamental as a watchdog timeout would have happened “at the job site,” so to speak, but you can’t catch every detail. Especially when the environment is as radically different as the surface of Mars.
I hope they can fix it with the new software. Bit of a long data link, but that’s why error-correcting codes were invented. NASA controlled the New Horizons spacecraft at a much longer distance.
Lot of good verbiage, but shouldn’t his have been anticipated back on earth a long time ago?
I bet the IT guy does not show up today.
They had a contest to name this little flyer. I thought it should have been called ‘Mayfly’ because it won’t fly for very long. It MAY not even FLY at all!
1202 error?
There is no better instructor than reality...............
I bet he has an Indian accent....................
I’ve been watching the fascinating videos about the Apollo Guidance Computer and how “restart on failure” has been one of the cardinal rules for space software ever since. Because you just can’t test and guard against everything...
Thanks to the brilliance of Margaret Hamilton.
And his name is Hank.
They probably didn’t test the power-up sequence at -60°C and in a near vacuum atmosphere.......................
Margaret Hamilton?........................... Oh, not THAT Margaret Hamilton!.....................
Apu.....................
From the article:
“...move the new software through the rover
to the base station and then to the helicopter...”
-
I know what the rover is,
and I know what the helicopter is,
but what is “the base station”?
I think they did, in a big vacuum chamber. But they couldn't simulate the exact solar conditions they'd have on the Martian surface, and the temperature soak conditions, as you alluded.
They probably left it with some items "to be determined," knowing they could reprogram it in situ. I'm sure they had a list of parameters that they could settle before launch, and another list of parameters that might have to wait till they could do site testing.
A real nail-biter, I'm sure. If they can fly and recover it without tipping it over, it will be very impressive.
I think the Gil Scot Heron song Whitey On The Moon pretty much guaranteed that U.S. Government-sponsored planetary exploration will be done by robots.
Margaret Hamilton reminds me of someone I once liked very much.
Am elctornic module inside Perseverance.....................
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