Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
It’s been a long journey getting here, but it seems we’ve finally made it: the Ingenuity helicopter seems to be up and running on Mars, preparing for its first flight as soon as today, April 19.
The event was initially supposed to take place on the weekend of April 10 but failed to do so on account of a watchdog timer expiration, a software glitch that prevented the machine from going into flight mode.
UPDATE: Ingenuity flew over Mars.
It took NASA engineers more than a week to come up with a fix after pondering two approaches. The first consisted of “adding a few commands to the flight sequence.” The commands were written relatively fast, but NASA had to put them to the test both on Earth and on Mars before deciding that’s the right recipe.
The second called for the team to reinstall Ingenuity's flight control software, a safe solution but one that was certain to take a very long time.
It’s unclear at the time of writing which path was chosen, but NASA now says “is targeting no earlier than Monday, April 19, for the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at approximately 3:30 a.m. EDT (12:30 a.m. PDT).” A live stream is planned for 6:15 a.m. EDT (3:15 a.m. PDT) on the agency’s social media channels.
A good sign that all seems to be in working order is the fact Ingenuity sent back data showing it was capable of completing a rapid spin test over the weekend.
Ingenuity is a small and light machine designed to prove helicopter flight is possible even in the far less dense atmosphere of Mars and even under a far weaker gravity.
The task ahead for the helicopter is very straightforward. It will have to spin its blades at 2,537 rpm, rise to an altitude of 10 feet (3 meters), and stay there for 30 seconds. This minor achievement will likely open the doors to entirely new ways of exploring alien worlds.
UPDATE: Ingenuity flew over Mars.
It took NASA engineers more than a week to come up with a fix after pondering two approaches. The first consisted of “adding a few commands to the flight sequence.” The commands were written relatively fast, but NASA had to put them to the test both on Earth and on Mars before deciding that’s the right recipe.
The second called for the team to reinstall Ingenuity's flight control software, a safe solution but one that was certain to take a very long time.
It’s unclear at the time of writing which path was chosen, but NASA now says “is targeting no earlier than Monday, April 19, for the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at approximately 3:30 a.m. EDT (12:30 a.m. PDT).” A live stream is planned for 6:15 a.m. EDT (3:15 a.m. PDT) on the agency’s social media channels.
A good sign that all seems to be in working order is the fact Ingenuity sent back data showing it was capable of completing a rapid spin test over the weekend.
Ingenuity is a small and light machine designed to prove helicopter flight is possible even in the far less dense atmosphere of Mars and even under a far weaker gravity.
The task ahead for the helicopter is very straightforward. It will have to spin its blades at 2,537 rpm, rise to an altitude of 10 feet (3 meters), and stay there for 30 seconds. This minor achievement will likely open the doors to entirely new ways of exploring alien worlds.
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