You may not believe it, but a new #Ingenuity RTE image just dropped in!
It is not a fresh one that the #MarsHelicopter sent home, but rather an old one, from when the heli was trying to reach the Neretva Vallis ancient riverbed. The marks seen on the regolith are from previous #Flight65 landing.
Processed, undistorted HELI_RTE
Image captured from RMC 66.0001/0
Sol 964, LMST: 10:17:50
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
As noted before (https://mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/111338171308855175), it appeared that #Flight64 put #Ingenuity in an awkward position 🙃 . With images from the takeoff of #Flight65 now in, we can see that that was indeed the case. It had landed with one foot on the crest of a rather unstable regolith ripple:
Image captured from RMC 65.0001/522
Sol 961, LMST: 10:33:12
Undistorted, processed HELI_NAV
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/00961/ids/edr/browse/heli/HNM_0961_0752245539_760ECM_N0650001HELI00522_0000LUJ01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
This is how the ground looked from 10m up in the air during #Ingenuity's #Flight65.
Image captured from RMC 65.0001/1
Sol 961, LMST: 10:33:38
Processed, undistorted, cropped HELI_RTE
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/00961/ids/edr/browse/heli/HSF_0961_0752245566_244ECM_N0650001HELI00001_000085J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
#Flight65 of #Ingenuity appears to have been successful.
Note: There is ambiguity in NASA's announcements regarding the time of the flights. This flight was planned for Nov 1 (time zone?), but took off at UTC: 01:18:48, on Nov 3.
Image captured from RMC 65.0001/1833
Sol 961, LMST: 10:33:54
Processed, undistorted HELI_NAVs
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/00961/ids/edr/browse/heli/HNM_0961_0752245583_250ECM_N0650001HELI01833_0000A0J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
The approx. radio coverage plot doesn't look that great for the UHF radio link from #Perseverance to #Ingenuity from its RMC 47.0000 location. No line-of-sight, and more than 1km distance. If the commands for #Flight65 and #Flight66 reached the heli, then hopefully a few images from the heli can make it back to the rover, confirming the success of those flights.
Or, we may have to wait till after the solar conjunction to know what happened.
#Ingenuity is flying #Flight65 AND 😯 #Flight66. That's right, two flights one after the other, the first today (in about 15 minutes), and the second on Thursday.
They are both short distance flights to reposition the heli, one 7m to the west, and the other 0.5m to the south. Can't even guess why those would be necessary 🤔. Feel free to speculate 😀
Here are the announcements:
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/493/flight-65-preview-by-the-numbers/
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/494/flight-66-preview-by-the-numbers/
65dBnoise