How does "The first robotic servicing mission on the surface of Mars" sound to y'all?
Well, if you're #NASA#JPL, this awesome headline could be yours for the low cost of a few nitrogen puffs!
This thread is just me fantasizing how Perseverance could potentially use its gDRT to clean the dusty solar panel and camera lens on Ingenuity and make history with this extraordinary servicing operation! 🧵
The little rotorcraft that could, Ingenuity, has completed its last flight after an emergency landing caused damage to its rotors. 😥
Having far exceeded expectations—5 flights over 30 days turned into 72 flights over 3 years—it will now go down in history, albeit only the history remembered by space fans.
"Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days, more than 33 times longer than originally planned, Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, cleaned itself after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter."
She was the first woman on Mars. As she was landing, she ignored the original plan and headed straight for the Jezero crater, Mission Control would need to live with it. Once she stepped out she didn't hesitate. It took her a while but she finally reached the device. She opened her toolbox and got to work. After 20 minutes, she had replaced the rotor. She cleaned the dust with a cloth and said "fly baby, fly". It was 2054 and Ingenuity could fly once again.
Out of many boring news stories eulogizing or lamenting #Ingenuity, here is a fascinating piece by Eric Berger about how the #MarsHelicopter came to be.
It's always the visionary people who in spite of difficulties persevere and make those great leaps forward. And those visionaries include many non technical roles like managers, administrators, and indeed, politicians.
It may be a little dated, but nonetheless it's nice to see the #MarsHelicopter marching ahead.
This is an image #Ingenuity captured on its last #Flight52 that just came down from the Red Planet. On the upper side is the terrain the heli will have to cross soon, when it takes off for its 53rd flight.
What is proper to say for #Ingenuity, an anthropomorphism but nonetheless an expression of love, is that it stayed in the battlefield erect and functioning until the very end.
The #MarsHelicopter is still alive, and we'll probably be hearing about it for as long as it has power to transmit its beacon and #NASA continues to devote a few minutes of #Perseverance's time every sol to listening for it, which may be well into Martian autumn.
Our favorite Mars Helicopter had its picture taken today!
Ingenuity has now flown an astonishing distance of 12 kilometers in 95 minutes distributed over 53 flights (of just 5 that were originally planned)!
This image was taken by the left Mastcam-Z on Perseverance at a distance of just about 16 meters - the closest these two robots have come since early in the mission!
Une chronophotographie du 59e vol de l'hélicoptère martien #Ingenuity 🚁 qui permet de bien se rendre compte des différents paliers atteints : 5 en montée, 3 en descente, avec une altitude max (et record) de 20 m.
Crédit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/DejaSu #Mars#MarsHelicopter
The passage of time on Mars. On Sol-945 (Oct. 17, 2023) starting at 10:21 LMST in the morning, Ingenuity kicked off an imaging sequence with its RTE color camera while sitting idle at airfield Tau. The camera snapped a picture of the ground every five minutes and forty seconds for nearly two hours and twenty-six minutes. Note; The last frame in the GIF, the animation reverses playback. #Ingenuity#MarsHelicopter#JPL#Mars2020#NASA#Mars#Space#PerseveranceRover
This first image from #Flight71 let's us know that #Ingenuity ended up landed on its feet, but if one looks closer, there is a groove on the regolith that looks very fresh. It seems as if something hit the ground in a way never seen before.
1/2
Processed, undistorted HELI_NAV
Image captured from RMC 71.0001/26
Sol 1027, LMST: 10:11:02
Ingenuity's 54th flight as captured by the Perseverance rover. Roughly 18 seconds into each video, a pre-flight check or "wiggle" test of Ingenuity's propeller blades is performed which is seen just prior to blade spin-up and takeoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6LfHhGGquo
"[...] the helicopter executed the first half of its autonomous journey, flying north at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) for 466 feet (142 meters). Then a flight-contingency program was triggered, and Ingenuity automatically landed." #LAND_NOW
During a short up and down Flight 72, Mars helicopter Ingenuity lost its comm link with rover Perseverance. NASA engineers are working on restoring it.
This follows Flight 71 on Jan 6 which made an emergency landing 35 seconds into a 125 sec flight; apparently the relatively featureless sandy terrain proved difficult for its navigation system.
Meanwhile, Voyager 1 is still sending garbled data.
Mars Helicopter Ingenuity was just a 30-day technology demonstration mission to test powered, controlled flight on another world.
Ingenuity completed its tech demo phase after the 3rd flight on April 25, 2021. After another 2 flights, it transitioned to a new operations demonstration phase.
Almost 3 years later, Ingenuity has completed 72 flights and is still going strong in support of the overall mission.
Good news from JPL - the Mars helicopter team managed to reestablish contact with Ingenuity after its comm loss since the middle of Flight 72. The team is reviewing data to better understand the root cause of the comm outage.
This was accomplished by "instructing Mars rover Perseverance to perform long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity’s signal."
Voici Valinor Hills, le champ de dunes qui tapisse le fond de l'ancienne rivière Neretva où repose pour toujours Ingenuity 🚁
Cette mosaïque de 3 images a été acquise ce matin par la caméra SuperCam 🇫🇷🇺🇸 à bord du rover Perseverance.
Maybe one of our last images of #Ingenuity, if one can call those few pixels an "image" of the #MarsHelicopter. There haven't been any SUPERCAM images from this new angle so far, so such wide FOV NAVCAM images is all that we have.
Quick NAVCAM_LEFT mosaic
looking from RMC 51.4692
Sol 1123, LMST: 11:16:05