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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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?