The change also means Ingenuity will require less support from the Perseverance rover team, which is looking ahead for targets to take rock and sediment samples in search of ancient microscopic life. Along with those one-way flights, there will be more precision maneuvering, greater use of its aerial-observation capabilities, and more risk overall. Ingenuity’s transition from conducting a technology demonstration to an operations demonstration brings with it a new flight envelope. If Ingenuity remains healthy after those flights, the next phase can begin. The fifth flight would send Ingenuity on a one-way mission, landing at the new site. local Mars time) and first data to be returned at 1:39 p.m. Ingenuity was programmed to execute a fourth flight Friday, with a takeoff to take place at 10:46 a.m. This 873-foot (266-meter) roundtrip effort would surpass the range, speed, and duration marks achieved on the third flight. Flight four will send the rotorcraft about 436 feet (133 meters) south to collect aerial imagery of a potential new landing zone before returning to land at Wright Brothers Field, the name for the Martian airfield on which Ingenuity’s first flight took place. Until then, Ingenuity will be in a transitional phase that includes its fourth and fifth forays into Mars’ crimson skies. The operations demonstration will begin in about two weeks with the helicopter’s sixth flight. Ingenuity’s Shadow During Third Flight: The shadow of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter can be seen in these images taken by its black-and-white navigation camera during its third flight on April 25, 2021.
“Since Ingenuity remains in excellent health, we plan to use it to benefit future aerial platforms while prioritizing and moving forward with the Perseverance rover team’s near-term science goals.”
“The Ingenuity technology demonstration has been a resounding success,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. With the Mars Helicopter’s energy, telecommunications, and in-flight navigation systems performing beyond expectation, an opportunity arose to allow the helicopter to continue exploring its capabilities with an operations demonstration, without significantly impacting rover scheduling.
#ACTIVE SKY NEXT DEMO PATCH#
The decision to add an operations demonstration is a result of the Perseverance rover being ahead of schedule with the thorough checkout of all vehicle systems since its Feb 18 landing, and its science team choosing a nearby patch of crater bed for its first detailed explorations. This new phase will begin after the helicopter completes its next two flights. Having proven that powered, controlled flight is possible on the Red Planet, the Ingenuity experiment will soon embark on a new operations demonstration phase, exploring how aerial scouting and other functions could benefit future exploration of Mars and other worlds. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has a new mission. The Red Planet rotorcraft will shift focus from proving flight is possible on Mars to demonstrating flight operations that future aerial craft could utilize.
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