Posted on 05/07/2021 1:04:00 PM PDT by blam
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is preparing to explore a new region of the Red Planet today on its fifth scheduled flight (3:26 p.m. EDT, or 12:26 p.m. PDT), with flight data coming in around 7:31 p.m. EDT (4:31 p.m. PDT).
Off to new places! The #MarsHelicopter is slated for its fifth flight on May 7, with data coming down at 4:31pm PT (7:31pm ET). The rotorcraft will take off at Wright Brothers Field and will land elsewhere this time, which is another first for Ingenuity. https://t.co/JxLNz7UADw pic.twitter.com/zOGo1j7srt
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 6, 2021
If all goes well, the 4-pound helicopter will climb 16 feet, then retrace flight four, heading south 423 feet. But instead of heading back to home base, the aircraft will soar to an altitude, a new height record, of 33 feet, where it will take color (as well as black-and-white) photos of the Red Planet. This flight is expected to last about 110 seconds and will be a one-way trip.
“But instead of turning around and heading back, we’ll actually climb to a new height record of 33 feet (10 meters), where we can take some color (as well as black-and-white) images of the area,” Josh Ravich, Ingenuity mechanical engineering lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, wrote in a blog post Thursday.
“After a total flight time of about 110 seconds, Ingenuity will land, completing its first one-way trip,” Ravich added. “When it touches down at its new location, we will embark on a new demonstration phase — one where we exhibit what this new technology can do to assist other missions down the road.”
Ingenuity landed with NASA’s Perseverance rover on Feb. 18 and deployed two months later from the belly of the land-based robot. The helicopter has already completed four flights in three weeks and plans more daring flights as an aerial exploration scout.
More developments will come this evening when NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory will announce how the flight went on its Twitter account.
“More developments will come this evening when NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory will announce how the flight went on its Twitter account.”
Too bad taxpayers have to go to Twitter to see the results of how their mega dollars are being spent.
Many US taxpayers dont go to Twitter so this needs to end
“ Many US taxpayers dont go to Twitter so this needs to end “
Many US taxpayers (like me) have been censored right the heck off of
Twitter, for pointing out unfortunate news about the Bidens, for example.
Twitter needs to end.
~Easy
The helicopter is now venturing out on its own. I know the helicopter has a radio link back to the Perseverance rover so it can relay back telemetry and pictures. I wonder just how far off the helicopter can “wander” and still be “heard” by the rover?
Boo hoo
Why do I need to open a Twitter account to see whats going on on Mars which is funded with my $$ ?
You need to open an account only if you comment. At least that’s my take.
Just a guess, but perhaps the helicopter is programmed to make its way back to its last landing spot if it loses contact with Perseverance. It has a fairly high degree of navigational autonomy, and can make use or landmarks it observes with its down-looking cameras.
Not to mention the possibility that Perseverance can go off looking for it if necessary.
I imagine they are going to use the helicopter to scout out the path ahead of Perseverance. Curiosity could have made better time if they had been able to look ahead a ways, instead of having to wait for the rover to cover its path forward. Also they got a significant amount of wheel damage on Curiosity because they tried to speed it up and it ran over rough ground between the point they were at and the point to which they commanded it to go.
I suspect the cost and weight of the Ingenuity helicopter was balanced against the amount of distance they can cover over the course of a mission (determined ultimately by the lifetime of the radioisotope heat source in the rover's RTG supply).
Ingenuity is a way to leverage other scarce resources like RTG life and wear on the rover parts by scouting out several alternative paths ahead before committing to a long-distance trek.
you don’t need to open a twitter account unless you want to comment, to read no you don’t, there are lots of private and government agency’s that use twitter.
I imagine they are going to use the helicopter to scout out the path ahead of Perseverance.
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This is pretty cool. You now have two semi-autonomous robotic devices helping each other in a team effort.
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