Good news for the hardy little Mars helicopter Ingenuity, which has braved the Martian winter thus far, and will soon be returning to the air. Since July, the helicopter has been taking a break as it deals with cold weather and increasing dust in the atmosphere, which limited its ability to replenish its battery. The Ingenuity team is planning a short hop for the upcoming Flight 30 due to the low temperatures in the Jezero crater.
Since Ingenuity hasn't flown since June 11, the team has done some checks to make sure everything is still working. There was a low-rpm spin of the helicopter's rotors on August 6. Data from the tests looked good, as the helicopter spun up its rotors to the same speeds as in an actual flight.
The 30th sortie will be a short hop, which will check out our system's health after surviving 101 sols of winter.
Ingenuity will be in the air for 30 seconds, rising to an altitude of 16 feet and making a sideways trip of 7 feet before landing. The purpose of the flight is to see if the helicopter can land in a straight line, rather than going somewhere. The helicopter will be able to return to longer flights once this is confirmed.
Tzanetos writes that they intend to continue their flight path towards the river Delta in the coming weeks. With higher battery states of charge will come longer flights, and eventually Ingenuity will be able to power its internal heaters overnight, which will stop its electronics from freezing each evening.
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