Mastodawn

65dBnoise Aug 2, 2023

As noted earlier (https://mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/110821838592525784), tosol #Perseverance moved to a location ~54m to the north of #Ingenuity, leaving the #MarsHelicopter just outside the no-fly zone of 50m, which is imposed to avoid risk of damage to the rover in case something goes very wrong with a flight.

#Flight54 has now been announced: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/473/flight-54-preview-by-the-numbers/

It will be a short vertical flight, designed for engineering purposes, and, maybe, to test flight conditions with a higher rotor speed 😎

h/t @stim3on

Flight 54 Preview – By the Numbers - NASA

Preview of Flight 53

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65dBnoise Aug 3, 2023

"Heli localization" is mentioned as the purpose for #Flight54. What could that mean? #Ingenuity's maintenance record may give some insight into why a localization of the heli may be necessary.

A year ago the #MarsHelicopter was trying to survive the harsh winter, and during that time one of its instruments, an inclinometer "whose sole purpose is [...] to determine how Ingenuity is oriented relative to the downward direction" was damaged.

More here: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/385/keeping-our-sense-of-direction-dealing-with-a-dead-sensor/

#Mars2020 #Solarocks

Keeping Our Sense of Direction: Dealing With a Dead Sensor - NASA

As the season has turned to winter in Jezero Crater, conditions have become increasingly challenging for Ingenuity, which was designed for a short flight-test campaign during the much warmer Martian spring.

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65dBnoise

It is possible that during #Flight53 an anomaly occurred which may have led to #Ingenuity's disorientation or otherwise loss of ground reference. That could explain the low altitude of the flight (5m instead of 10m) and its much shorter duration and length. Resetting of the parameters used by the software to allow the IMU to substitute for the damaged inclinometer may be the reason for short #Flight54, "for heli localization".

Just speculating 😎