Comments on: Ingenuity fails to take off on 4th flight

By: Stephen Egan

Stephen Egan — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 21:48:13 +0000

Kudos to JPL and NASA, because it’s difficult to make absolutely *sure* your code is right and tight. They program in so many failsafes, and that can be a good thing because there are NO repair facilities available!

At least, not yet…

Igor

By: James Street

James Street — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 13:19:21 +0000

They’ll figure it out. Robert made the good point after the first bug that while it had been tested on earth in an atmospheric chamber with pulleys and weights to simulate earth’s gravity on Ingenuity, the blades themselves had never spun in Martian gravity.

By: Skunk Bucket

Skunk Bucket — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 04:37:36 +0000

Sorry, I was trying to be humorous, but I probably should have including an emoji to make it more clear. The ability to reprogram a helicopter sitting on the surface of Mars would have sounded like science fiction only a few years ago. I’m also quite impressed that they can get enough lift in such a thin atmosphere to fly, even considering the lower gravity.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 01:47:07 +0000

In reply to Skunk Bucket. Skunk Bucket: No, the software was not written by Boeing. Where do you get that fantasy? This was designed and built by JPL. And the software issue is quite reasonable for a test vehicle, as Ingenuity is.

By: Skunk Bucket

Skunk Bucket — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 01:34:48 +0000

So was the software for Ingenuity written by the same folks who work for Boeing? It feels like we’ve been seeing a lot of these issues lately.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 01:34:37 +0000

Mr Zimmerman: I hope they do get to the point were they can fly the helo to failure, it would be a shame if they have to abandon a functioning instrument due to time constraints, or a software issue for that matter. I would much rather have the reason be a mechanical issue, but I am just a space fanboy, not a scientist.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:57:58 +0000

In reply to Kyle.

Kyle: That 30 day (actually 30 sols, which is slightly longer) is the planned time. I suspect it could be extended, but that would then delay Perseverance’s mission to explore Jezero Crater. At a certain point it makes no sense to just do more flights if they have the engineering data they need.

I don’t know what they will decide but I would guess they will make at least one more flight attempt to make sure they understand why today’s flight aborted, then maybe do another flight to failure, to see how much range this prototype can give them.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:30:41 +0000

Is that 30 day test period a self imposed dead line or is that how long Ingenuity’s battery would last? They should try to debug the issue with the helicopter to the point of where they could fly it ahead of the rover, then keep leep frogging it until the rotors give out.