After examining the data from Flight 15, the Ingenuity team is prepared to try our Flight 16 no earlier than Thursday, November 18.
Flight 16 will be a much shorter, 109-second flight. We prepare to capture a series of nine color Return-to-Earth (RTE) cam images uniformly spaced throughout the flight, oriented to the southwest and opposite the flight course.
By doing a brief flight over these ridges, we reduce collected heading mistake that can build up over longer flights.
Animation highlighting NASAs Ingenuity helicopter flying on Mars. Credit: NASA
With Flight 15, Ingenuity started the journey back towards “Wright Brothers Field” at “Octavia E. Butler Landing,” the site where Perseverance touched down with Ingenuity in February. This flight was carried out with the recently-increased rotor speed of 2,700 rpm. After reviewing the information from Flight 15, the Ingenuity group is prepared to attempt our Flight 16 no earlier than Thursday, November 18.
Flight 16 will be a much shorter, 109-second flight. Ingenuity will climb to 33 feet (10 meters), move over the “Raised Ridges” at 3 mph (1.5 meters per second), then land near the edge of “South Séítah,” covering a range of 380 feet (116 meters). We plan to catch a series of nine color Return-to-Earth (RTE) video camera images uniformly spaced throughout the flight, oriented to the southwest and opposite the flight path.
This electronic camera is installed in the helicopters fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight. This was the date of Ingenuitys 15th flight.
If we could fly all the way across Séítah on Flight 9, why are we breaking the return course into multiple sectors? As talked about in the Flight 9 retrospective post, the terrain of Séítah is particularly challenging for Ingenuitys navigation algorithm. Since the navigation algorithm presumes flat terrain, any changes to the surface height introduces heading error. On Flight 9, Ingenuity landed 154 feet (47 meters) away from the center of our 164-foot-(50-meter)-radius target airfield. Since the surface of South Séítah was benign and enabled a large degree of unpredictability in our landed position, the heading error on Flight 9 was less of an issue. The surface on the north side of Séítah is rockier. As an outcome, we have to be more precise in our landing area on the return course. Flight 16 will tackle the difficult surface of the Raised Ridges. By doing a brief flight over these ridges, we reduce built up heading mistake that can build up over longer flights.
Flight 16 will set up Ingenuity for a Séítah crossing on Flight 17, getting us closer to the existing goal of Wright Brothers Field. While awaiting the Perseverance rover to capture up after Flight 17, the Ingenuity group is thinking about performing a flight software application update to allow brand-new navigation abilities and better prepare Ingenuity for future flights.
Composed by Joshua Anderson, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Tactical Lead at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.