seems to be no good alternative route for the rover through the rocky and sandy terrain it is currently in, judging by the altitude contours in that area.
The fact that #Ingenuity's team has not yet posted their promised article about the #MarsHelicoptercrash may be an indication that they may be expecting to find more evidence or verify their hypotheses with images captured from a new perspective and a closer distance.
2/2
According to #Ingenuity's Chief Engineer Travis Brown (2h interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4XpLZqc6ao), the plan for the heli after #Flight72 was to meet #Perseverance somewhere close to Bright Angel, a future science target for the rover. The rover would take some pictures of the heli from close range to document changes on the hardware that had occurred over the course of 3 years.
Brown also mentioned that Ingenuity's budget was running dry
1/
NASA SpaceFlight #NSF had a very interesting live interview with Travis Brown, PhD, #Ingenuity's current Chief Engineer. Travis said that in spite of an original though/assumption that Ingenuity's rotors had hit the ground during landing of #Flight72, they now tend to believe that it was rather a very hard landing that damaged the rotors, since there is no evidence anywhere on the regolith of a blade hit.
Earlier fact list here:
https://mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/112032961625951266
And yet it moves.
One of the only two visible pieces of debris in close proximity to the #MarsHelicopterCrash is seen here blown to the south about 2cm, along with a few other changes on the sides of the gouge. See alt text for more.
Animation
Processed, undistorted, leveled HELI_RTE images captured from RMC 72.0001
Sols 1065, 1068, LMST: 10:10:30
Originals:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01065/ids/edr/browse/heli/HSF_1065_0761476678_037ECM_N0720001HELI00000_000085J01.png
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01068/ids/edr/browse/heli/HSF_1068_0761743012_908ECM_N0720001HELI00000_000085J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
This is a spreadsheet collecting facts, events, and hypotheses about the #MarsHelicopterCrash during #Flight72.
For any analysis to be more than just a hunch, it must at least state what facts, assumptions, or calculations it is based on. Alternative hypotheses, when most of the actual evidence is unknown or can take different explanations, can make use of different or overlooked facts, and can offer grounds for their falsification.
For #Ingenuity's rotors to hit (leveled) ground, the heli must have a tilt > 60° (it is 70° in the image below). If a rotor hit an inclined ground at the lower side with a, say, 20° slope, the tilt would have to be 80-90°.
Modeled in #FreeCAD
The Little Prince
"One sees clearly only with the heart"
Debayered, processed SUPERCAM_RMI
looking NW (319°) from RMC 50.1618
Sol 1075, LMST: 10:24:45
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01075/ids/edr/browse/scam/LRE_1075_0762365327_180ECM_N0501618SCAM01075_0010I9J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/65dBnoise
More about what appears to be a delamination of the remaining upper rotor blade of #Ingenuity, seen previously in the SUPERCAM images, and now spotted in a number of HELI_NAV and HELI_RTE images.
This is an animation of cropped RTE images captured over a period of 2 hours.
HELI_RTE
Image captured from RMC 72.0001/7
Sol 1043, LMST: 07:49:07
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01043/ids/edr/browse/heli/HSF_1043_0759514936_834ECM_N0720001HELI00007_000085J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
Here is an idea about how that deep scuff under #Ingenuity's body may have happened. It doesn't appear to have been made by one of the blades hitting the ground.
Animated left front foot hitting the ground
HELI_RTE
Image captured from RMC 72.0001/1
Sol 1065, LMST: 14:02:54
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01065/ids/edr/browse/heli/HSF_1065_0761491016_819ECM_N0720001HELI00001_000085J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
@stim3on
Interesting. It appears that the remaining half of the blade does cast a peculiar shadow, not as I would have expected it, but nonetheless something that could be an edge-on sun delamination.
Undistorted HELI_NAV animation
Image captured from RMC 72.0001/232
Sol 1069, LMST: 10:18:46
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01069/ids/edr/browse/heli/HNM_1069_0761832297_421ECM_N0720001HELI00232_0000LUJ01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
#Flight72 #Ingenuity #MarsHelicopterCrash #NASA #Mars2020 #Solarocks #Space
65dBnoise