What factors were responsible for the five-flight lifetime? Overall battery life and recharge cycles (five cycle seems very low).
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This helicopter was intended only as a proof-of-concept so the engineers only scoped out a limited set of tests not knowing if it would encounter something unexpected. As it was, the 1st flight was delayed a bit as preflight checkout showed some anomalies. NASA engineers downloaded and updated the onboard software, then made the first successful flight.
Really is a neat bit of engineering.
Don’t know if you saw the video, but there was one flight where Perseverance had its microphone on during one of the helicopter’s flights. It’s incredible the sound carries in such a thin atmosphere. Ingenuity sounded like a really revved up leaf blower!
Did not see that video. Did you see the one where the tech guy (makes excellent videos) went to CalTech and interviewed the team? They had video and audio of the copter in the vacuum chamber. Sounded like a lot of angry hornets.