The flight model of a helicopter. The credits are from NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 13th flight provided the most detailed look yet of the helicopter in action.
Flight 13 is one of Ingenuity's most complicated flights, and it will take place no earlier than Saturday, November 20. It involved flying into varied terrain within the geological feature and taking images of an outcrop from multiple angles for the rover team. The images were acquired from an altitude of 26 feet (8 meters) and provide valuable insight for Perseverance scientists and rover drivers.
The video clip of Flight 13 was captured by the rover's two-camera Mastcam-Z. The other provides a closeup of takeoff and landing, which was acquired as part of a science observation.
The value of Mastcam-Z really shines through with these video clips, said the deputy principal investigator for the Mastcam-Z instrument at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We get a great closeup of takeoff and landing through Mastcam-Z's 'right eye' even at 300 meters away. While the helicopter is a small part of the wide view taken through the left eye, it gives viewers a good feel for the size of the environment that Ingenuity is exploring.
The 13th flight of the agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which took place on Sept. 4, 2021, has a big-picture perspective from the Mast cam-Z instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ingenuity kicks up a small dust cloud that the right camera captures moving to the right of the helicopter during ascent. After climbing to a planned altitude of 26 feet (8 meters), the helicopter performs a small pirouette to line up its color camera for scouting. Ingenuity allows the rotors' thrust to begin moving horizontally through the thin Martian air before moving offscreen. The helicopter lands in the vicinity of where it took off. The team targeted a different landing spot, about 12 meters from takeoff, to avoid the sand that it landed on.
The wide angle shows less of the helicopter and more of Mars than the left eye can see, but it gives a glimpse of the way the Ingenuity team programmed the flight to ensure success.
"We took off from the crater floor and flew over an elevated ridgeline before dipping into Sétah," said Ingenuity Chief Pilot Hvard Grip of JPL. Since the helicopter's navigation filter prefers flat terrain, we programmed in a waypoint near the ridgeline where the helicopter slows down and hovers for a moment. The helicopter would be able to keep track of its heading despite the significant terrain variations if the little 'breather' was used. It does the same on the way back. It's great to see this happen and reinforce our understanding of how to best operate Ingenuity.
The 13th flight of the agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter can be seen in the video from the Mast cam-Z instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The view shows how Ingenuity maintains altitude. The helicopter's laser altimeter shows a change in elevation of the terrain below as it heads northeast after an initial ascent to 26 feet (8 meters) altitude. Ingenuity automatically adjusts, climbing as it approaches the ridge and then descending to remain above the undulating surface. After it flies to the right, Ingenuity takes 10 images of the rocky outcrop with its color camera before heading back into frame and returning to land.
Ingenuity went quiet in October when the Red Planet and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun. Ingenuity performed a short experimental flight test before undertaking Flight 15 which began the multi-flight journey back to the vicinity of "Wright Brothers Field" in April.
NASA's Perseverance captures challenging flight by Mars helicopter in November of 2021.
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