The experimental ingenuity of NASA’s Mars helicopter performed a crucial rotation test after the first attempt ended abruptly, postponing the helicopter’s innovative flight attempt.
During the test, which was successfully completed on Friday (April 16th), the grounded helicopter rotated its blades at the speed required for the flight, approximately 2,400 revolutions per minute. The ingenuity team evaluates new data and data about originally modified software to decide a new flight date for 4 lbs. (1.8 kilograms) helicopter, according to a NASA statement issued Friday night.
When ingenuity first attempted the test on April 9, the test stopped as the helicopter’s computer switched from preflight mode to flight mode due to the expiration of the “watchdog” timer, NASA said at the time. As a result, NASA has announced that it will delay the first flight of the vehicle, which was aimed at April 11, because the team repaired the timer that did not behave.
Related: Follow the ingenuity of NASA’s Mars helicopter by testing its blades! (video)
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The successful rotation test came after Ingenuity personnel modified the flight sequence itself, according to the statement. “This approach has been extensively tested on both Earth and Mars and has been carried out without endangering the safety of the helicopter,” NASA officials said in a statement.
The engineers had simultaneously worked on a second potential solution that would require reinstalling the helicopter flight control software and are not ready to give up that job.
“Software exchange is a simple solution to a known problem,” the statement said. “But it will take a little longer to perform and it is a software change that has remained stable and unchanged for almost two years. Validation and testing took a few days, and transferring and uploading these new files will take a few more. “
The team is now evaluating what fix to implement for the first Ingenuity flight, which will be scheduled accordingly. In previous statements on the issue, NASA staff said they hoped the helicopter would fly sometime next week (week of April 19).
The news of the success of the top speed test came, coincidentally, 154 years after the birth of Wilbur Wright, one of the Wright brothers who built the first airplane that flew successfully on Earth. The ingenuity carries a small piece of fabric from that plane, called the Flyer 1.
The ingenuity has been on what will become its aerodrome, a flat patch of Jezero crater, since April 3, when the Perseverance rover slightly left the helicopter in the last few centimeters on the surface of the Red Planet. The ingenuity had made the long journey to Mars folded and protected behind the abdominal panel of the car’s size rover.
Ever since he implemented ingenuity, Perseverance has moved to the site with a view that the engineers have selected to follow the flight. The main rover spends its time assessing whether nearby rocks formed during a volcanic eruption or from sedimentary water.
The mission program allocates 30 Martian messengers (approximately 31 days from Earth) to Ingenuity’s flight campaign. After this time, the rover must focus on the geological analysis and caching that make up its main mission on the Red Planet.
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