Ingenuity completes 15th flight
Click for full image.
No details have been released, but based on the latest raw images downloaded from the Mars rover Perseverance today, the helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its 15th flight in Jezero Crater yesterday.
The image to the right is the last of five released this morning, showing the helicopter’s shadow on the ground, just before Ingenuity touched down. Note how the shadow of Ingenuity’s four legs appear oriented level relative to the ground. While the first of the five images shows the shadow tilted, as if the helicopter is making a last turn, the last four photos all show the legs oriented properly.
We will have to wait now for official confirmation.
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Click for full image.
No details have been released, but based on the latest raw images downloaded from the Mars rover Perseverance today, the helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its 15th flight in Jezero Crater yesterday.
The image to the right is the last of five released this morning, showing the helicopter’s shadow on the ground, just before Ingenuity touched down. Note how the shadow of Ingenuity’s four legs appear oriented level relative to the ground. While the first of the five images shows the shadow tilted, as if the helicopter is making a last turn, the last four photos all show the legs oriented properly.
We will have to wait now for official confirmation.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Thanks for the picture! To my eye, the legs toward the bottom of the picture appear to be foreshortened, and the shadow of the rectangular solar array above the rotors appears to be shifted toward the bottom of the image, relative to the square main body. These shifts would indicate that the little helicopter is not level, but is tilted towards the bottom of the image.
Ray Van Dune: Thank you for the analysis. I wonder however if the tilt you see is a consequence of the fisheye nature of the camera lens.
I also think, assuming you are right, that this tilt is well within the helicopter’s margins, and it would have landed smoothly regardless.
Ray Van Dune: Also, you should look at all the images, in sequence. The leg shadows are very steady from picture to picture, also indicating the helicopter is landing under control.
I forgot to account for the angle of the Sun from the vertical, both from local time of day and season. So I don’t think I can make any deduction about the helicopter’s orientation, only that the shadows are indeed foreshortened.
Just posted on UMSF is a 30 frame GIF of the landing. In upper right corner of frame you can see one of the landing legs.
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=49681
How cool is it that flights on Mars are becoming routine!
Cool pic but I have a question. As an amateur radio operator (N3AAS) will the Martian atmosphere support radio communications?