Ingenuity’s next flight
Click for full image.
The Ingenuity engineering team today announced their plans for the helicopter’s twelfth flight on Mars, scheduled for early tomorrow.
Ingenuity will climb to an altitude of 10 meters and fly approximately 235 meters east-northeast toward the area of interest in Séítah. Once there, the helicopter will make a 5-meter “sidestep” in order to get side-by-side images of the surface terrain suitable to construct a stereo, or 3D, image. Then, while keeping the camera in the same direction, Ingenuity will backtrack, returning to the same area from where it took off. Over the course of the flight, Ingenuity will capture 10 color images that we hope will help the Perseverance science team determine which of all the boulders, rocky outcrops and other geologic features in South Séítah may be worthy of further scrutiny by the rover.
The map above shows South Seitah in the yellow oval. The yellow line marks Ingenuity’s past flights. The white line marks the path Perseverance has taken south since landing. The dashed lines mark Perseverance’s planned route.
Thus, the helicopter will be obtaining aerial photos of the region in Seitah where the scientists want to send Perseverance, in order to help them pick the best route.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
The Ingenuity engineering team today announced their plans for the helicopter’s twelfth flight on Mars, scheduled for early tomorrow.
Ingenuity will climb to an altitude of 10 meters and fly approximately 235 meters east-northeast toward the area of interest in Séítah. Once there, the helicopter will make a 5-meter “sidestep” in order to get side-by-side images of the surface terrain suitable to construct a stereo, or 3D, image. Then, while keeping the camera in the same direction, Ingenuity will backtrack, returning to the same area from where it took off. Over the course of the flight, Ingenuity will capture 10 color images that we hope will help the Perseverance science team determine which of all the boulders, rocky outcrops and other geologic features in South Séítah may be worthy of further scrutiny by the rover.
The map above shows South Seitah in the yellow oval. The yellow line marks Ingenuity’s past flights. The white line marks the path Perseverance has taken south since landing. The dashed lines mark Perseverance’s planned route.
Thus, the helicopter will be obtaining aerial photos of the region in Seitah where the scientists want to send Perseverance, in order to help them pick the best route.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
The Little Ingen that Does !
R.C. Fans, this is what it is all about.
Have each Ingen touch down / LZ been named ?
Can’t wait for future generations of Ingenuity! Should really open the door for more extensive, productive exploration.
From now on, all the cool kids will have helicopters on their Mars landers.
Small edit in first paragraph: “twelfth”
Andi: Thank you.
I wonder if there won’t be future – drone only missions. It might be simpler to release a drone during descent than to land a rover. Rovers likely never will cover more than a couple of miles a year (if that). If you could beef up the drones to carry science packages, they might be the future of Mars exploration.
Lots of development to go before we get there, but a tantalizing (to me) possibility.