Next Ingenuity flight to push envelope significantly
Click for full image.
The engineers running the Mars helicopter Ingenuity revealed today that they will be attempting their most ambitious flight for the helicopter’s ninth flight, presently scheduled for no earlier than July 4th.
I have annotated the map to the right to show Ingenuity’s present position and its approximate landing area.
Without question this flight will be the riskiest taken by Ingenuity so far, more than doubling the flight distance achieved on any previous flight. More important, it will be flying over terrain far rougher than it was initially designed for.
Rather than continuing to skip ahead of the rover, however, we will now attempt to do something that only an aerial vehicle at Mars could accomplish – take a shortcut straight across a portion of the Séítah region and land on a plain to the south. On the way, we plan to take color aerial images of the rocks and ripples that we pass over.
To accomplish this feat, we will break our own records for distance, time aloft, and groundspeed. Ingenuity will be instructed to fly 2,051 feet (625 meters) at 5 meters (16 feet) per second and remain airborne for approximately 167 seconds. This max effort will also challenge Ingenuity’s navigation algorithm in a fundamentally new way. This onboard algorithm which lets Ingenuity determine where it is along the flight path, was designed for a comparatively simple technology demonstration over flat terrain and does not have the design features to accommodate high slopes and undulations that are to be found in Séítah. The undulations can cause oscillations of a few meters in the altitude control of the helicopter but Ingenuity flies sufficiently high above the terrain that this will not be a problem.
However, these slopes and abrupt changes in the slope path can also cause significant heading deviations as the slanted ground images taken by the camera are interpreted onboard using a flat-ground assumption. There is the distinct possibility that the cumulative effect of this is a large lateral error at the destination landing site, with delivery errors of many tens of feet (or meters). We have taken mitigation steps to minimize this by flying slower over the challenging sections we encounter in the early portions of the flight to reduce the down-track errors from a large initial heading error.
Nevertheless, even though the final destination is centered in a good 164-foot-radius (50-meter-radius) patch of clear ground, it is possible that we will end up landing on a more treacherous, higher-relief surface than the relatively benign, sandy patches we have been able to pick so far. And it will stretch the capabilities of the helicopter’s telecom system, which was designed for line-of-sight communication over distances of a few hundred meters. All of this amounts to a significantly elevated risk, and it is safe to say that it will be the most nerve-wracking flight since Flight 1.
In more plain English, they are gambling and this flight might be a test to failure. Since Ingenuity was designed from the get-go as an engineering test, not a science instrument, testing to failure is really the correct thing for them to do. They need to push their software and hardware to figure out what it can, and more importantly, cannot do. Once they know these limits it will teach them how to design future Mars flying machines to be smarter and more capable.
Thus, the ninth flight might be the last for Ingenuity. It is also possible it will survive, and fly again. Expect that next flight or so to push things even more.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
Click for full image.
The engineers running the Mars helicopter Ingenuity revealed today that they will be attempting their most ambitious flight for the helicopter’s ninth flight, presently scheduled for no earlier than July 4th.
I have annotated the map to the right to show Ingenuity’s present position and its approximate landing area.
Without question this flight will be the riskiest taken by Ingenuity so far, more than doubling the flight distance achieved on any previous flight. More important, it will be flying over terrain far rougher than it was initially designed for.
Rather than continuing to skip ahead of the rover, however, we will now attempt to do something that only an aerial vehicle at Mars could accomplish – take a shortcut straight across a portion of the Séítah region and land on a plain to the south. On the way, we plan to take color aerial images of the rocks and ripples that we pass over.
To accomplish this feat, we will break our own records for distance, time aloft, and groundspeed. Ingenuity will be instructed to fly 2,051 feet (625 meters) at 5 meters (16 feet) per second and remain airborne for approximately 167 seconds. This max effort will also challenge Ingenuity’s navigation algorithm in a fundamentally new way. This onboard algorithm which lets Ingenuity determine where it is along the flight path, was designed for a comparatively simple technology demonstration over flat terrain and does not have the design features to accommodate high slopes and undulations that are to be found in Séítah. The undulations can cause oscillations of a few meters in the altitude control of the helicopter but Ingenuity flies sufficiently high above the terrain that this will not be a problem.
However, these slopes and abrupt changes in the slope path can also cause significant heading deviations as the slanted ground images taken by the camera are interpreted onboard using a flat-ground assumption. There is the distinct possibility that the cumulative effect of this is a large lateral error at the destination landing site, with delivery errors of many tens of feet (or meters). We have taken mitigation steps to minimize this by flying slower over the challenging sections we encounter in the early portions of the flight to reduce the down-track errors from a large initial heading error.
Nevertheless, even though the final destination is centered in a good 164-foot-radius (50-meter-radius) patch of clear ground, it is possible that we will end up landing on a more treacherous, higher-relief surface than the relatively benign, sandy patches we have been able to pick so far. And it will stretch the capabilities of the helicopter’s telecom system, which was designed for line-of-sight communication over distances of a few hundred meters. All of this amounts to a significantly elevated risk, and it is safe to say that it will be the most nerve-wracking flight since Flight 1.
In more plain English, they are gambling and this flight might be a test to failure. Since Ingenuity was designed from the get-go as an engineering test, not a science instrument, testing to failure is really the correct thing for them to do. They need to push their software and hardware to figure out what it can, and more importantly, cannot do. Once they know these limits it will teach them how to design future Mars flying machines to be smarter and more capable.
Thus, the ninth flight might be the last for Ingenuity. It is also possible it will survive, and fly again. Expect that next flight or so to push things even more.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
JPL is pushing the envelope into true scout-helicopter mode. As I looked at the previous ground-level photos, I was struck by how easily the rover might be “trapped” by the relatively steep ridges that it could not see over, save by aerial recon. So I suspect Ingenuity is being put to work doing real mission-critical recon sooner than anyone anticipated. I also have a hunch that the SpaceX go-for-it attitude is percolating through the space program, and may have given the JPL planners some additional inspiration!
I think this is fantastic…. I was scratching my head regarding the “5 flights and done.” mantra.. an extended mission was always on the cards…. Flying this little wonder to the very edge of its ( ever expanding ) capabilities is the right thing to do. At some point it will end up upside down, on a patch of red dirt, with a plaque detailing it’s heroics for tourists. Until then, fly high and fly free little helicopter!!
Bob, a completely unrelated question to this post, and something I have no doubt you are going to cover, but until you do, my science news feed is full of stories regarding Hubble having to switch to its backup computers, power management systems etc…
What I don’t understand is, surely the backup systems are there for exactly this reason… Hubble is getting old… Why is it . Firstly complicated, and secondary, difficult and hard to use backup systems? Surely that is what they are there for?
Forgive my ignorance….
Lee Stevenson: Reread my posts. Reread them carefully. The problem is locating the piece of hardware that is causing the problem. The switch to backup won’t work if the unit you are abandoning is not the cause of the problem.
A good final flight might be into a dust devil
@Bob, I understand that they have not nailed down the problem yet, but my question does not directly even relate to where the problem resides, I’m just confused as to why it is so difficult to switch over to back up systems.
Of course nothing in space is easy, and I know that Hubble is running on its last set of gyroscopes, but if it has redundant systems for the rest of the electronics/mechanics, surely they are designed to be switched out?
I guess I should bite the bullet and buy “universe in a mirror” ;-) but until then, I’m still baffled about the difficulty of switching to a backup, when that is what a back up is there for?
Lee–
here you go….
“The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It”
The Explorer’s Club (June 30, 2008)
https://archive.org/details/the-hubble-space-telescope-and-the-visionaries-who-built-it
Lee Stevenson asked: “I’m still baffled about the difficulty of switching to a backup, when that is what a back up is there for?”
When they switched to the backup, the problem persisted. This suggests that the problem is not in the system that they had switched out, so the problem hopefully is elsewhere. If the problem exists in both the primary and the backup, then the problem is serious and needs a serious workaround.
@Edward, that makes it a bit clearer, thank you! My time is a bit limited right now for deep dives, so I’m pretty much relying on BTB for my space news.