NASA’s much-vaunted mars helicopter Ingenuity suffered a navigation timing error that sent it into a tailspin over the Martian surface during its recent flight. On May 28, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced that the ‘Marscopter’ has successfully completed its sixth test flight on its 91st day on the Red Planet. While the teeny experimental helicopter faced an error during its descend, it eventually landed safely and was ready for its next flight,” the space agency confirmed.
“Ingenuity began adjusting its velocity and tilting back and forth in an oscillating pattern. This behaviour persisted throughout the rest of the flight. Prior to landing safely, onboard sensors indicated the rotorcraft encountered roll and pitch excursions of more than 20 degrees, large control inputs, and spikes in power consumption,” Håvard Grip, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Chief Pilot at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained in a statement
‘Just keep flying’
JPL also shared a monochrome GIF which showed ingenuity, wildly lurching in the air towards the end of its flight. According to the California-based lab, Ingenuity successfully flew to a height of 65 meters of its scheduled 215-meter journey. “Despite unexpected motion from an image processing issue, Ingenuity muscled through the final ~65 meters of its 215-meter journey, landed safely & is ready to fly again,” JPL wrote in a tweet.
Even though it can be called a ‘helicopter’, the appearance is closer to that of mini-drones. The “small but mighty passenger” aboard Perseverance is named, “Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter” which weighs about 1.8 kilograms on Earth and has a fuselage about the size of a tissue box. The United States space agency also elaborated that it started out six years ago as an “ implausible prospect”.
Even though it can be called a ‘helicopter’, the appearance is closer to that of mini-drones. The “small but mighty passenger” aboard Perseverance is named, “Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter” which weighs about 1.8 kilograms on Earth and has a fuselage about the size of a tissue box. The United States space agency also elaborated that it started out six years ago as an “ implausible prospect”.
Image: NASA