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First images of Ingenuity’s second flight

Ingenuity's second flight, April 22, 2021
For full images go here, here, and here.

According to Mimi Aung, the project manager for Ingenuity, they attempted their second flight of the Mars helicopter early this morning, with the following flight plan:

[W]e plan to trying climbing to 16 feet (5 meters) in this flight test. Then, after the helicopter hovers briefly, it will go into a slight tilt and move sideways for 7 feet (2 meters). Then Ingenuity will come to a stop, hover in place, and make turns to point its color camera in different directions before heading back to the center of the airfield to land. Of course, all of this is done autonomously, based on commands we sent to Perseverance to relay to Ingenuity the night before.

No live stream was provided this time. However, the three images above from Perseverance, just downloaded today and taken about nine minutes apart, show Ingenuity before, during, and after that flight. If you compare the first and third images you can see that the helicopter was able to successfully return to the same landing spot.

I expect an announcement of this successful flight to be posted shortly.

UPDATE: JPL has now released an image taken by Ingenuity during its flight.

Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

 

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

7 comments

  • pawn

    Fantastic!!!

    It’s odd though that it seems to have landed in exactly the same spot and orientation that it took off from.

    “Figure the odds” as they say.

    Oh boy!!! Let the conspiracies begin!!!!!

  • Lee Stevenson

    I am wondering where the video footage is from the main colour camera? I understand that the uplink process is complicated, but one of the test parameters must surely be to send back pretty video which is also obviously useful in checking out the terrain it’s looking at. It can literally see over the horizon! At least the horizon we are getting from Perseverance..

  • Alex Andrite

    Amazing ! Love it ! A very crisp performance.

    Now, waiting for the RC Mars Drone Racing games to come out.

    “Ingen” is my pick !

  • Over at the JPL site, the motto “Dare Mighty Things” is visible over a double-masker. That seems almost a mockery.

  • BLSinSC

    I thought a helicopter was able to obtain LIFT by the reaction of their blades against AIR! Is it possible that there is ATMOSPHERE on Mars? Is it REALLY possible to fly a helicopter in a vacuum or in a NO atmosphere place? Not a conspiracy nut – just seems odd that a helicopter could generate LIFT without something to provide resistance!

  • BLSinSC: Mars has an atmosphere, though very thin. This has been known for more than two hundred years.

  • They’re also very large blades for a very small, lightweight body.

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