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WG3K > ANS 22.12.24 00:36z 79 Lines 4383 Bytes #59 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS357.3
Subj: NASA Now Knows Why Its Mars Helicopter Crashed
Path: SR1BSZ<EA2RCF<LU9DCE<W0ARP<K7EK<N3HYM<WG3K
Sent: 241222/0036Z 11163@WG3K.#SMD.MD.USA.NOAM LinBPQ6.0.24
Investigating an aircraft crash is no simple task here on Earth. Imagine
how much more difficult it would be to diagnose a helicopter accident that
took place 69 million miles away with none of the usual data present to
help. NASA had to do just that after its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter suffered
an accident on Jan. 18, 2024, that has since left it grounded in a crater
on Mars. And now, after months of collecting data, the space agency may
have finally figured out what happened.
On April 19, 2021, the NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history by
lifting off the Jezero Craterâ€Ös floor and becoming the first aircraft to
fly on a celestial entity other than Earth. The helicopter was supposed to
fly only five experimental flights over 30 days to demonstrate that flight
on Mars was possible. But it exceeded all expectations, conducting 72
flights over three years, setting all sorts of altitude records in the
process, ending with that early 2024 accident.
*The wreckage of the Inguity Mars Helicopter as seen by the Mars Rover
Perseverance. The helicopter is on the right and the broken rotor is
approximately 49 feet away on the left. [Photo:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS]*
The final moments of the helicopterâ€Ös flight were more or less a mystery at
first. Ingenuity lifted off like it had 71 times before. Then camera
footage showed that it began initiating descent after just 19 seconds of
flight. By the time 32 seconds had elapsed, the helicopter was on the
Martian surface again and had halted communications. Six days later, the
helicopter beamed back images that showed it had sustained severe
rotor-blade damage and would no longer be able to fly.
Now, NASA believes that the navigation system was ultimately to blame. The
navigation system used the helicopterâ€Ös downward-facing camera to track
visual features on the ground. During this final flight, the helicopter was
flying over a portion of the Jezero Crater that is known for textured,
featureless sand ripples. The navigation system was thus unable to find any
suitable ground features to track for a landing.
From there, several things went wrong. NASA says that the helicopter made
hard contact with a sand-ripple slope, causing it to pitch and roll. The
sudden change in altitude was too much for the rotor blades, and four of
them broke off at their weakest points. This caused the rotor system to
vibrate excessively, which ripped one of the blades clean off. Finally, the
incident generated an excessive power draw that caused communications to
fail.
*NASAâ€Ös graphic depicts the most likely scenario for the accident, in which
Ingenuity landed hard on a sand-ripple slope, causing irreparable
rotor-blade damage.[NASA/JPL-Caltech]*
“When running an accident investigation from 100 million miles away, you
donâ€Öt have any black boxes or eye witnesses,” said HĂĄvard Grip, Ingenuityâ€Ös
first pilot and research technologist at JPL Robotics. “While multiple
scenarios are viable with the available data, we have one we believe is
most likely: Lack of surface texture gave the navigation system too little
information to work with.”
Nobody expected Ingenuity to last as long as it did. Its flights gave
researchers excellent aerial views of our red neighbor. Even now, as it
lies in the sands of the Jezero Crater, Ingenuity can no longer fly but
still beams back weather and avionics data to NASA. The avionics data along
with the flight data from Ingenuityâ€Ös 72 flights â€ö combined with
Ingenuityâ€Ös incredible longevity â€ö are helping NASA develop smaller,
lighter avionics for future aircraft on Mars.
“Because Ingenuity was designed to be affordable while demanding huge
amounts of computer power, we became the first mission to fly commercial
off-the-shelf cellphone processors in deep space,” said Ingenuity project
manager Teddy Tzanetos. “Weâ€Öre now approaching four years of continuous
operations, suggesting that not everything needs to be bigger, heavier and
radiation-hardened to work in the harsh Martian environment.”
Tzanetos and his team are already working on another Mars helicopter. Itâ€Ös
approximately 20 times heavier than the Ingenuity and is being designed to
carry several pounds of science equipment while autonomously exploring
remote locations on Mars.
[ANS thanks CNET.com and space reporter Joe Hindy for the above information]
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