Mars Helicopter Ingenuity -- Mystery Flight 53! (Flight 54 Preview – By the Numbers)

NASA ^ | August 2, 2023

[Ezekiel]

STATUS UPDATES | August 02, 2023
Flight 54 Preview – By the Numbers
Written by NASA/JPL

Flight 54
Expected Flight date: 08/03/2023
Horizontal flight distance: 0 (pop-up flight)
Flight time: 24.62 seconds
Flight altitude: 16 feet (5 meters)
Heading: NA (hovering)
Max Flight speed: 0
Goal of flight: 1) Heli localization

[Ezekiel]

Flight 53 was scheduled for July 22nd, but at this time, there has been no update on the Flight Log or Wikipedia.

However, flight 54's "hovering" is scheduled for tomorrow.

Flight 53 -- it's a mystery.

[Ezekiel]

Hmmm?

Peculiar that they put out a Flight 54 preview without saying a peep about Flight 53.

Perhaps everyone will catch up tomorrow.

“Goal of flight: 1) Heli localization”

I don’t recall seeing that type of goal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localization#Engineering_and_technology

[Tijeras_Slim]

JPL has sure given us a lot of bang for the buck over the years.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Flight 53. Probably a Mission for the Defense Department. We'll never hear anything about it! :)

[Ezekiel]

The lack of an update for this flight is strange. I've been following since the beginning. Never seen that.

I discovered Flight 53's data by going to footnote 6 here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ingenuity_flights#Flight_totals

Only 52 flights are listed up to now on the wiki page and the NASA flight log, but the file itself is current. Emphasis mine:

{ "type": "Feature", "properties": { "Flight": 53, "Sol": 864, "SF3_X": 2265.905, "SF3_Y": -5091.463, "SF3_Z": -152.15, "Easting": 4349402.623, "Northing": 1095565.6, "Elev_Geoid": -2417.76, "Lon": 77.3603268, "Lat": 18.48285433, "Dist_m": 142.504, "Total_m": 12322.327, "Total_km": 12.322, "Dist_ft": 467.533, "Total_ft": 40427.582, "Total_mi": 7.657, "Max_Alt_m": 5.0, "Max_Alt_ft": 16.404, "Max_Spd_m": 5.5, "Max_mph": 12.303, "Duration_s": 74.859, "total_s": 5706.591, "total_min": 95.10985, "Earth_Date": "July 26, 2023", "SCLK_START": 743642631.979, "SCLK_END": -1.0, "FromAirfld": "Airfield Xi", "ToAirfld": "Prelim", "QUAT_X": 0.0, "QUAT_Y": 0.0, "QUAT_Z": 0.0, "QUAT_C": 1.0, "roll": 0.0, "pitch": 0.0, "yaw": 0.0, "yaw_rad": 0.0, "tilt": 0.0 }, "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ 77.3603268, 18.48285433, -2417.76 ] } }

https://mars.nasa.gov/mmgis-maps/M20/Layers/json/m20_heli_waypoints.json

Quite a bit of difference (e.g. speed, distance, duration) from the plans given on the Flight 53 preview page.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Perhaps the Public Relations liason was on vacation and it was overlooked!

[Ezekiel]

In the mood for a Purim Code?

Post 5 has the excavated data for Flight 53 (it has not been placed in any of the normal locations). Plus there's a little context.

For the sake of documentation, I'd like to draw your attention to as-of-Flight 53 total flight time for Ingenuity:

5706.591 seconds

I had been watching for this specific data point because 53 would be the one flight where the total time would fall out on a recent Hebrew year date.

Recent... if the flight time were anywhere near the proposed ~ 137 seconds. There's usually some differences between the preview and the actual flight stats. Ergo, if the flight had been 151 seconds, the new total would have been 5783.

If the JSON file is accurate, the flight was waaay off of its advertised marks. 200 ft. shorter and max speed much higher, resulting in a duration of 74.859 s.

Highly irregular. Hence 5706.591.

The Flight Log rounds to whole numbers. The current posted total as of Flight 52 is 5632 seconds (compare the JSON file -- 5631.732 s.).

If Flight 53 had been added to the log as every other flight in its time, the total time would currently read as

5707

But for some odd reason it has been skipped. Maybe the running totals will be updated before the data comes in for Flight 54. Otherwise 5707 is going to be passed right on by.

54 was expected to fly (pop up, not travel) today for a mere 24.62 seconds.

Back to 5706.591.

If you recall the background of the code, it was in year 5707 that:

Streicher was swung suddenly to face the witnesses and glared at them. Suddenly he screamed, 'Purim Fest 1946.'

Which was St. Patrick's Day 7 months earlier, in year 5706.

Focused on the 707 תש"ז year-letters encoded in the names of Haman's sons, and the trial and hangings that year, commentators seemed to have neglected this detail concerning year 5706.

591 = כל ישראל, so I thought this hidden flight data and delayed flight date (July 26: 8 Av, UFO hearing re 'non-human biologics' aka Little Green Men, death of an Eagle) was rather curious in its time in history, then and now.

Put me on a highway
Show me a sign...

MbY, even as Mordecai ben Yair.

[Ezekiel]

A few new faces have appeared on the Ingenuity page listing the team members.

Perhaps there’s some overlap with the folks who “did something” to Voyager 2.

🤨🤔