NASA JPL is rejoicing the successful conclusion of another flight for the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The tweet proclaimed that the seventh flight had been accomplished overall, which is also the second flight for services during the demo stage for the helicopter. During its seventh flight, the helicopter hovered for 62.8 seconds and traveled around 106 meters south.
Furthermore, Ingenuity set down successfully in a new grounding position during the flight and took the black and white navigation picture seen above during the flight. NASA JPL did provide a bit more information in the tweet, in a reply to someone who questioned how many more flights might be organized and if there were any indications of damage on the helicopter so far. A JPL team member stated that there were no marks of aging yet on the actuator arrangement of the Ingenuity helicopter.
Read more: China lands its Zhurong rover for the first time on Mars
Moreover, the team member states with each flight added real-world information on the execution of the rotor and its thermic properties is gained enabling the unit to raise permissible flight times incrementally. However, there were no irregularities observed during the flight.
Another successful flight ?#MarsHelicopter completed its 7th flight and second within its operations demo phase. It flew for 62.8 seconds and traveled ~106 meters south to a new landing spot. Ingenuity also took this black-and-white navigation photo during flight. pic.twitter.com/amluVq9wbb
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) June 8, 2021
The Mars helicopter underwent an anomaly during its sixth flight that made it uncertain, but it descended safely. During that six flight, the helicopter started to shift back and forth towards the end of the mission. The aircraft made it around 150 meters into the flight before the oscillating pattern began.
According to NASA, the oscillation was generated when a particular frame from the navigation camera was failed, leading to every photograph taken after that succumbed frame having an inaccurate timestamp. An inaccurate timestamp suggests that the navigation algorithm was employing images that didn’t correctly interpret its position resulting in flight irregularity.
