Mastodawn

65dBnoise Apr 25, 2024

I believe we can now reconstruct the last moments of #Ingenuity's #Flight72 with some certainty. The actual trajectory may be a little more complicated, e.g. turning while hopping, but we'll never know.

EDIT: there is a new theory about Flight 71, see comments.

Animation

Processed MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 110mm
looking NNE (16°) from RMC 52.0000
Sol 1130, LMST: 16:19:24

Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/01130/ids/edr/browse/zcam/ZR0_1130_0767269765_831EBY_N0520000ZCAM09152_1100LMJ01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/65dBnoise

#MarsHelicopter #Perseverance #Mars2020 #Solarocks #Space

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Simeon Schmauß Apr 25, 2024

@65dBnoise I'm not sure that this kind of bounce is possible. I was told by one of the Ingenuity engineers that the shock absorbers are so effective even on hard ground that a bounce on much more absorbent sand could never reach this high.

There is a new theory that these imprints on the backside of the sandripple are actually from Flight 71. The official landing location was apparently just a rough estimate and there don't seem to be any imprints at that location anyways.

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65dBnoise

@stim3on
The team said the heli was flying at an angle. Presumably that meant flying under power, not just dropping under gravity. So, being powered, flying at an angle and hitting the ground at high velocity, is about as chaotic as it could get.

But the new theory sounds much more interesting, and also explains why we can't find the marks from the #Flight71 landing. My previous hypothesis for FLight 71 has it 50m to the east, while this one is just 1~2m to the west.
I like it a lot.