This annotated picture of Mars’ Jezero Crater portrays the ground track and waypoints for Ingenuity’s prepared tenth flight – arranged to happen no earlier than Saturday, July 24. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
Ingenuity has actually come a long method from its initial airfield, “Wright Brothers Field,” which is 0.64 miles (1.04 kilometers) to the northeast of our existing area. We got here throughout Flight 9, a venture that had our helicopter breaking numerous of our own records as we moved to the far side of the “Séítah” geologic system. Covering 2,051 feet (625 meters), Flight 9 was performed so that Ingenuity might offer important images and info for the Perseverance science group.
This annotated picture of Jezero Crater portrays the paths for Perseverance’s very first science project (yellow inbounds marker) in addition to its 2nd (light-yellow inbounds marker). It consists of the “Séítah” geologic system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Flight 10 will permit us to profit of our previous flight. Scheduled for no earlier than this Saturday (July 24), Flight 10 will target a location called the “Raised Ridges” (RR), called for the geographical functions that begin around 164 feet (50 meters) south-by-southwest of our existing area. We will be imaging Raised Ridges due to the fact that it’s a location that Perseverance researchers discover interesting and are thinking about going to at some point in the future.
This series of images from launch to landing was taken by the downward-looking navigation electronic camera of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter throughout its ninth flight on Mars on July 5, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
From navigation and efficiency viewpoints, Flight 10 will be our most complicated flight to date, with 10 unique waypoints and a small elevation of 40 feet (12 meters). It starts with Ingenuity removing from its 6th airfield and reaching the brand-new record height. It will then head south-by-southwest about 165 feet (50 meters), where upon striking our 2nd waypoint, take our very first Return to Earth (RTE) electronic camera picture of the Raised Ridges, looking south. Next, we’ll equate sideways to waypoint 3 and take our next RTE image – once again looking south at Raised Ridges.
Imagery specialists at JPL intend to integrate the overlapping information from these 2 images to produce one stereo image. Flying further to the west, we’ll pursue another stereo set of images (waypoints 4 and 5), then head northwest for 2 more sets of stereo sets at waypoints 6 and 7 in addition to 8 and 9. Then, Ingenuity will turn northeast, landing at its seventh airfield – about 310 feet (95 meters) west of airfield 6. Total time in the air is anticipated to be about 165 seconds.
Ingenuity has actually endured 107 sols (Martian days) considering that implementation from Perseverance, 76 sols beyond the initial innovation presentation objective it was developed for. It has actually likewise effectively performed 2 different flight-software updates, enhancing the airplane’s capability to carry out flights and capture color images (gathering 43 13 MP images to date). It’s flown an overall range of 0.997 miles (1.605 kilometers), with overall time up of 842 seconds (14 minutes, 2 seconds), in 9 flights. Should we achieve success, we’ll cross the 1-mile overall range metric with Flight 10.
Performance Summary
- Two different flight-software upgrades, which have actually enhanced the airplane’s functional capability to carry out flights and capture 13MP color images.
- 43 13MP Color Images
- 809 B&W Navigation Images
Written by Teddy Tzanetos, Operations Lead for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – Ops. Demo. at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
