Ingenuity Mars Helicopter set to fly lower for detailed surface imaging

Written by Copernical Team Sunday, 05 September 2021 05:27

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Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 05, 2021

Following Flight 12's scouting images of "South Seitah," which were the most valuable Ingenuity has taken to date, we are taking Winston's advice for Ingenuity's 13th flight. We will again be venturing across into Seitah to scout an area of outcrops glimpsed in Flight 12 imagery - but we're taking these new pictures while looking back, pointing in the opposite direction. Taking place no ea

Taking place no earlier than Saturday, Sept. 4 at 5:08 p.m. PDT, or 12:04 LMST (local Mars time), the 193rd sol (Martian day) of the Perseverance mission, the flight will again journey into the geologically intriguing South Seitah region. However, instead of probing further into Seitah and taking pictures of multiple ridgelines and outcrops (which we did on 12), we'll be concentrating on one particular ridgeline and its outcrops during Flight 13. We'll also be flying at a lower altitude - 26 feet (8 meters), as opposed to the 33 feet (10 meters) during 12.

Another big difference is which way our camera will be pointing. For Flight 13, we'll be capturing images pointing southwest. And when they're combined with Flight 12's northeast perspectives, the overlapping images from a lower altitude should provide valuable insight for Perseverance scientists and rover drive planners.

When you compare our estimated flight time and distance travelled for this trip, it again reinforces just how much we're concentrating our efforts in one small area. On Flight 12 we covered 1,476 feet (450 meters) of Martian ground in 169.5 seconds and took 10 pictures (again - all pointed northeast). On 13, we'll cover about 690 feet (210 meters) in around 161 seconds and take 10 pictures (pointing southwest)...

And for those of you scoring at home, on 13 we'll also be traveling at 7.3 mph (3.3 meters per second). We did 10 mph (4.3 meters per second) during 12.

While we're talking about numbers, in our last blog, Chief Pilot Havard talked about our logbook (the Nominal Pilot's Logbook for Planets and Moons). Below is an updated ledger of some of the most important numbers for Ingenuity's Mars flights so far. Along with those listed below, we've taken 72 13-megapixel color images and 1,390 black-and-white navigation camera images. We're looking forward to add to these numbers and learning more about that ridgeline when "lucky 13" is in the books.

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After six months on Mars, NASA's tiny copter is still flying high
Washington (AFP) Sept 5, 2021
It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA's helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn't ready to retire. Given its stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency has extended Ingenuity's mission indefinitely. The tiny helicopter has become the regular travel companion of the rover Perseverance, whose core mission is to seek signs of ancient life on Mars. "Everything is working so well," said Josh Ravich, the head of Ingenuity's mechanical engineeri ... read more