The black-and-white navigation camera of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter provided a dramatic video of its record 25th flight.
The flight, which took place on April 8, covered a distance of 704 meters at a speed of 5.5 meters per second. It was the longest and fastest rotorcraft flight on the Red Planet so far, NASA said in a statement.
“For our record flight, Ingenuity’s downward-looking navigation camera gave us a breathtaking sense of what it would be like to glide 33 feet above the surface of Mars at 12 miles per hour,” said Ingenuity team leader Teddy Tsanetos of Jet. of NASA. Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, in a statement.
The first frame of the video starts about one second after the flight. After reaching a height of 10 meters, the helicopter headed southwest, accelerating to its maximum speed in less than three seconds.
The rotorcraft first flew over a group of sand waves, then, about half of the video, several rock fields. Finally, a relatively flat and uncharacteristic terrain appears below, providing a good place to land. The video from the 161.3-second flight was accelerated approximately five times, decreasing to less than 35 seconds.
The navigation camera is programmed to deactivate each time the helicopter is within 1 meter of the surface. This helps to ensure that the dust that rises during take-off and landing will not interfere with the navigation system, as it tracks the characteristics of the ground.
Ingenuity flights are autonomous. The JPL pilots planned them and sent commands to Perseverance Mars, which then passed those commands to the helicopter. During flight, the on-board sensors, navigation camera, inertia unit and laser rangefinder provide real-time data to Ingenuity’s navigation processor and main flight computer, which guides the helicopter in flight. This allows Ingenuity to react to the landscape while executing its commands.
Mission controllers recently lost contact with Ingenuity after the helicopter entered a low-power state. Now that the rotor is back in contact and receiving adequate energy from its solar array to charge its six lithium-ion batteries, the team is looking forward to its next flight to Mars.
The small helicopter landed with the NASA Perseverance rover on the floor of Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Ingenuity’s $ 85 million mission was to be completed after flight number five.
But the solar-powered helicopter had performed so well and remained so healthy, despite the thin atmosphere on Mars, that NASA allowed the mission to be extended. Ingenuity is currently preparing for its 29th flight, NASA said.
20220529-143602
Add Comment