Perseverance Perseverance Perseverance

[Anaxagoras]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EyF2yf7WUAM ... ame=medium

[Pyrrho]

So now people think that Perseverance caught t3h Fl@m1nG Gh3Y

https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/statu ... 6338154498

[sparks]

Lens flares.

Must be related to Gates chips in the Covid vaccines.

[Pyrrho]

https://i.imgur.com/9ewHmoJ.jpg

[Witness]

https://i.imgur.com/KhhgmJb.gif

Preflight test. :)

Will fly April 12th.

[sparks]

Looking forward to the video from this.

[Pyrrho]

Delayed until April 14 at the earliest because they need to fix a glitch.

[sparks]

That blows. But considering the round trip light speed time, no one on Earth can be flying the thing, it's got to do it for itself which is very impressive to say the least. Correct me if I'm a dipshit on this point, I haven't done a lot of reading about it.

[Anaxagoras]

No, you're right. Mars is currently over 15 light minutes away from Earth, so the helicopter has to fly and land autonomously.

About the glitch:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/10/worl ... index.html

[Witness]

https://i.ibb.co/NL1zrfF/Esperance.png
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/weather/

[Anaxagoras]

Found this livestream on Youtube, which is supposed to cover Ingenuity's first flight live (well, of course it can't be live as in we see it in real time. It'll be at least 15 minutes later, the time it will take a signal to reach Earth from Mars.

Right now though, they are showing historical NASA videos. I'm not sure exactly when the actual broadcast will begin.

[Anaxagoras]

Here's another one. This is the official NASA livestream. Due to start in about 4 hours.

[Witness]

https://i.redd.it/hpbh3r5ay6u61.gif

Shadow:

https://i.imgur.com/CGTIJni.png

[Anaxagoras]

Looks like it worked perfectly.

Hopefully the next one will be a bit more ambitious than just going up and back down in the same spot.

[Witness]

Chi va piano va sano e va lontano. :)

[Anaxagoras]

Somehow I missed that there was already a second flight.

Link:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ezr2d9GUYAY ... ame=medium

[Anaxagoras]

I thought this video about the MOXIE experiment to make O2 from CO2 was pretty interesting:

[Pyrrho]

https://i.imgur.com/zpDlUNK.jpg

[Witness]

Third flight:

https://streamable.com/rfepeb

[Witness]

Mars helicopter photographs Mars rover

https://i.imgur.com/Wp7dTo6.png

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56912808

[Witness]

Mars Ingenuity helicopter mission extended by Nasa

Nasa said the first three flights of the drone, called Ingenuity, had worked so well it would now be moving from a demonstration to an operational phase.

This means the chopper will support Nasa’s Perseverance Rover, helping with its hunt for signs of life.

The new phase will last for another 30 Martian days - or Sols - but the team said it was hopeful the operational role could be extended further.

“The technical performance has been fantastic and it is exceeding all our expectations,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity’s project manager.

“I can't tell you how excited we are about this new phase.”
...
The rover will be looking for rock samples that it can study with its onboard instruments and tools. Its ultimate aim is to find signs of life.

In the helicopter's new operational phase, it will fly up to a kilometre ahead of the rover, scouting for promising geological features and exploring areas that Perseverance cannot reach.

It will also make digital elevation maps, helping scientists to better understand the terrain.

The hope is this will demonstrate how aerial mobility could help future missions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56951752

[Anaxagoras]

Why Ingenuity’s Fifth Flight Will Be Different

This time it will fly in the direction where the rover is going and find a new site to land. It will also ascend to a height of 10 meters, about twice as high as previous flights.

[Anaxagoras]

Some footage from Ingenuity's 5th flight.



It has moved to a new location.

[Anaxagoras]

A technical problem cropped up in Ingenuity's sixth flight. The helicopter survived the flight, but it's a bit concerning:

Surviving an In-Flight Anomaly: What Happened on Ingenuity’s Sixth Flight

[Anaxagoras]

It's a Scott Manley video, so pretty good stuff. You can see a map that shows where both the rover and the helicopter have been so far, and he does some explaining too.