Mars Helicopter Sol 133– Color Camera: NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter got this image throughout its 9th flight. Flight 17 will zip this surface once again and land near the upper right corner of the image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
With Flight 17, Ingenuity continues its journey back to Wright Brothers Field at the Octavia E. Butler landing website. Flight 17 is the 3rd flight of this journey and is scheduled to occur no earlier than Sunday, December 5 with the data arriving back on Earth no earlier than later that exact same day..
Flight 17 is approximately half of Flight 9 in reverse, which was one of the most challenging flights for Ingenuity to date. The crossing of the “Séítah” area of Mars Jezero Crater will take at least 2 flights, with a stop midway across. This stop is needed for 2 factors. Ingenuitys decreased flight time, since of greater rotor RPMs, implies that Ingenuity would need to fly faster to cover the same range. Flying much faster increases the navigation uncertainty developed throughout a flight, which suggests bigger landing ellipses are needed. By flying slower, Ingenuity can much better target a landing site in South Séítah.
Throughout flight 9, we knew Ingenuity would have a larger unpredictability in the landing location, but that was appropriate since the area was reasonably benign. With two flights, Ingenuity can much better target safe landing sites on the eastern side of Séítah, without extreme danger on landing.
Mars Helicopter Sol 133– Color Camera: NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter obtained this image during its 9th flight. During flight 9, we understood Ingenuity would have a bigger unpredictability in the landing area, but that was appropriate because the area was reasonably benign. With 2 flights, Ingenuity can much better target safe landing sites on the eastern side of Séítah, without excessive danger on landing.
During Flight 17, Ingenuity is expected to fly 187 meters at an elevation of 10 meters and be air-borne for 117 seconds..
Written by Gerik Kubiak, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Flight Software Lead at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.