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turbinetree

(24,703 posts)
Fri May 28, 2021, 03:10 PM May 2021

Surviving an In-Flight Anomaly: What Happened on Ingenuity's Sixth Flight

STATUS UPDATES | May 27, 2021

Written by Håvard Grip, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Chief Pilot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory



On the 91st Martian day, or sol, of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter performed its sixth flight. The flight was designed to expand the flight envelope and demonstrate aerial-imaging capabilities by taking stereo images of a region of interest to the west. Ingenuity was commanded to climb to an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) before translating 492 feet (150 meters) to the southwest at a ground speed of 9 mph (4 meters per second). At that point, it was to translate 49 feet (15 meters) to the south while taking images toward the west, then fly another 164 feet (50 meters) northeast and land.

Telemetry from Flight Six shows that the first 150-meter leg of the flight went off without a hitch. But toward the end of that leg, something happened: Ingenuity began adjusting its velocity and tilting back and forth in an oscillating pattern. This behavior persisted throughout the rest of the flight. Prior to landing safely, onboard sensors indicated the rotorcraft encountered roll and pitch excursions of more than 20 degrees, large control inputs, and spikes in power consumption.



https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/305/surviving-an-in-flight-anomaly-what-happened-on-ingenuitys-sixth-flight/

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Surviving an In-Flight Anomaly: What Happened on Ingenuity's Sixth Flight (Original Post) turbinetree May 2021 OP
wow, just freaking WOW! onethatcares May 2021 #1
That little drone made it through that situation which is amazing turbinetree May 2021 #2
Dropped one frame from the navigation camera and that threw off the timing and navigation. lagomorph777 May 2021 #3

turbinetree

(24,703 posts)
2. That little drone made it through that situation which is amazing
Fri May 28, 2021, 03:30 PM
May 2021

that the JPL engineers will be able to correct and download that data and what it will take for "future" flights....just amazing..

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
3. Dropped one frame from the navigation camera and that threw off the timing and navigation.
Fri May 28, 2021, 03:34 PM
May 2021

Looks like they'll be able to craft a software fix for it.

Lucky they got the learning experience non-destructively!

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