After 28 Flights, Is NASA's 'Ingenuity' Mars Helicopter Nearing the End of Its Life? (msn.com) 61
After traveling 300 miles on the underbelly of the Perseverance rover, the "Ingenuity" helicopter has made 28 different flights over the surface of Mars, reports the Washington Post, staying aloft for a total of nearly one hour, flying 4.3 miles with a maximum speed of 12.3 miles per hour and a top altitude of 39 feet. "It's traversed craters, taken photos of regions that would be hard to reach on the ground, and served as a surprisingly resilient scout that has adapted to the changing Martian atmosphere and survived its harsh dust storms and frigid nights.
"Now the engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are worried that their four-pound, solar-powered drone on Mars, may be nearing the end of its life." Winter is setting in on Mars. The dust is kicking up, coating Ingenuity's solar panels and preventing it from fully charging its six lithium-ion batteries. This month, for the first time since it landed on Mars more than a year ago, Ingenuity missed a planned communications session with Perseverance, the Mars rover that it relies on to send data and receive commands from Earth. Will a dust-coated Ingenuity survive a Martian winter where temperatures routinely plunge below minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit? And if it doesn't, how should the world remember the little helicopter that cost $80 million to develop and more than five years to design and build? Those closest to the project say that as time winds down for Ingenuity, it's hard to overstate its achievements....
"We built it as an experiment," Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's planetary science division, told The Washington Post. "So it didn't necessarily have the flight-qualified parts that we use on the big missions like Perseverance." Some, such as components from smartphones, were even bought off-the-shelf, so "there were chances that they might not perform in the environment as we expected. And so there was a risk that it wasn't going to work.... What happened was, and this is really key, after Ingenuity performed so well on those first five flights, the science team from Perseverance came to us and said, 'You know what, we want this helicopter to keep operating to help us in our exploration and achieving our science goals,' " Glaze said.
So NASA decided to keep flying....
On April 29, it took its last flight to date, No. 28, a quarter-of-a-mile jaunt that lasted two-and-a-half minutes. Now NASA wonders if that will be the last one. The space agency thinks the helicopter's inability to fully charge its batteries caused the helicopter to enter a low-power state. When it went dormant, the helicopter's onboard clock reset, the way household clocks do after a power outage. So the next day, as the sun rose and began to charge the batteries, the helicopter was out of sync with the rover: "Essentially, when Ingenuity thought it was time to contact Perseverance, the rover's base station wasn't listening," NASA wrote.
Then NASA did something extraordinary: Mission controllers commanded Perseverance to spend almost all of May 5 listening for the helicopter.
Finally, little Ingenuity phoned home.
The radio link, NASA said, "was stable," the helicopter was healthy, and the battery was charging at 41 percent.
But, as NASA warned, "one radio communications session does not mean Ingenuity is out of the woods. The increased (light-reducing) dust in the air means charging the helicopter's batteries to a level that would allow important components (like the clock and heaters) to remain energized through the night presents a significant challenge."
Maybe Ingenuity will fly again. Maybe not.
"At this point, I can't tell you what's going to happen next," Glaze said. "We're still working on trying to find a way to fly it again. But Perseverance is the primary mission, so that we need to start setting our expectations appropriately."
For Ingenuity's "Wright Brothers moment" — when it flew for the first time on another planet — it was actually carrying a postage-sized bit of fabric from the Wright Brothers original 1903 aircraft.
"Now the engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are worried that their four-pound, solar-powered drone on Mars, may be nearing the end of its life." Winter is setting in on Mars. The dust is kicking up, coating Ingenuity's solar panels and preventing it from fully charging its six lithium-ion batteries. This month, for the first time since it landed on Mars more than a year ago, Ingenuity missed a planned communications session with Perseverance, the Mars rover that it relies on to send data and receive commands from Earth. Will a dust-coated Ingenuity survive a Martian winter where temperatures routinely plunge below minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit? And if it doesn't, how should the world remember the little helicopter that cost $80 million to develop and more than five years to design and build? Those closest to the project say that as time winds down for Ingenuity, it's hard to overstate its achievements....
"We built it as an experiment," Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's planetary science division, told The Washington Post. "So it didn't necessarily have the flight-qualified parts that we use on the big missions like Perseverance." Some, such as components from smartphones, were even bought off-the-shelf, so "there were chances that they might not perform in the environment as we expected. And so there was a risk that it wasn't going to work.... What happened was, and this is really key, after Ingenuity performed so well on those first five flights, the science team from Perseverance came to us and said, 'You know what, we want this helicopter to keep operating to help us in our exploration and achieving our science goals,' " Glaze said.
So NASA decided to keep flying....
On April 29, it took its last flight to date, No. 28, a quarter-of-a-mile jaunt that lasted two-and-a-half minutes. Now NASA wonders if that will be the last one. The space agency thinks the helicopter's inability to fully charge its batteries caused the helicopter to enter a low-power state. When it went dormant, the helicopter's onboard clock reset, the way household clocks do after a power outage. So the next day, as the sun rose and began to charge the batteries, the helicopter was out of sync with the rover: "Essentially, when Ingenuity thought it was time to contact Perseverance, the rover's base station wasn't listening," NASA wrote.
Then NASA did something extraordinary: Mission controllers commanded Perseverance to spend almost all of May 5 listening for the helicopter.
Finally, little Ingenuity phoned home.
The radio link, NASA said, "was stable," the helicopter was healthy, and the battery was charging at 41 percent.
But, as NASA warned, "one radio communications session does not mean Ingenuity is out of the woods. The increased (light-reducing) dust in the air means charging the helicopter's batteries to a level that would allow important components (like the clock and heaters) to remain energized through the night presents a significant challenge."
Maybe Ingenuity will fly again. Maybe not.
"At this point, I can't tell you what's going to happen next," Glaze said. "We're still working on trying to find a way to fly it again. But Perseverance is the primary mission, so that we need to start setting our expectations appropriately."
For Ingenuity's "Wright Brothers moment" — when it flew for the first time on another planet — it was actually carrying a postage-sized bit of fabric from the Wright Brothers original 1903 aircraft.
I don't know, is it? (Score:5, Insightful)
God I hate headlines that end in a question. If you have something to say, say it. Don't try and pretend some content-free puff piece is thought-provoking.
After 28 Flights, NASA's 'Ingenuity' Mars Helicopter May Be Nearing the End of Its Life.
See, was that so hard?
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It's like old Batman episodes. "Will the caped crusader get out of this *** blank *** trap?!? Tune in next week! Same bat time! Same bat channel!"
They just want you to stay tuned, still, it's the first of its kind, a prototype; there will be others.
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I'd have thought the best way to keep dust off the solar panels would be to fly around and blow it off.
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Or add a little heliport with closing doors to the rover.
No dust inside there... and maybe an inductive charger.
I'm sure the next helicopters will be better designed now we know how useful they are. This one was only supposed to do five flights and it's done twenty six (and counting).
After traveling 300 miles on the underbelly of the Perseverance rover
Maybe they meant 300 feet.
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Apparently, the dust is electrostatically charged. And as anyone who has been trained how to get out of a lifecraft into a rescue helicopter knows, helicopters develop several thousands of volts of charge between airframe and ground during flight. (Hint - don't reach out to grab the down line below the winchman. Let it earth. People have died from the heart attack otherwise. Also, the voltage can generate
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The reason they ask questions is usually to avoid being sued. Technically this wasn't a question, but a qualitative word, but similar idea. This becomes a habit and then becomes a style of writing.
I didn't call Donald Trump a sexual predator, I just asked if he is.
I didn't accuse Putin of Murdering anyone that questions him, I just said that some other people (who do not want to be named) are accusing him.
I didn't say you are dying, I just said you might be dying.
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Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies.
When there is a question in a headline, the answer is "no".
We can expect a long life for Ingenuity!
Rotorwash vs Dust on Panels? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why aren't the solar panels effectively self-cleaning via rotorwash?
Re:Rotorwash vs Dust on Panels? (Score:5, Insightful)
Reasons I can think of:
- Positioned the way it is, the solar panel doesn't receive that much airflow
- Fine dust collects under the boundary layer, where airspeed is low, same reason why cars don't self-clean just by driving on the highway
- Martian atmosphere is really thin, it takes a lot of wind to move just a little bit of dust
Re:Rotorwash vs Dust on Panels? (Score:5, Informative)
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If only there were a way you could somehow find a picture of ingenuity to find out the answer to that question! Then you would know that the rotor wash doesn't touch the panel because the panel is above the rotors.
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Why aren't the solar panels effectively self-cleaning via rotorwash?
They are. That isn't the problem. They problem is dust in the atmosphere due to seasonal sandstorms. There isn't enough sunlight getting through to allow quick enough charging during daylight hours to sustain it through the night.
Re:Rotorwash vs Dust on Panels? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why aren't the solar panels effectively self-cleaning via rotorwash?
They are. That isn't the problem. They problem is dust in the atmosphere due to seasonal sandstorms. There isn't enough sunlight getting through to allow quick enough charging during daylight hours to sustain it through the night.
I'll bet that there will be some alterations for future rovers.
What might be cool.
A more robust copter. This was just an experiment, they didn't know if it would even work. But work well it did. This is an unqualified success.
So a heliport for the next one. Put a little landing pad with a charging port on it. Maybe even a clamshell cover.
Next - the Rovers are showing robustness, lasting long past their initial projections, so in addition to the solar panels, add an RTG to keep the electronics running at idle when dust storms threaten. Give them a chance to survive the storms. Maybe even to help survive until Mars' balmy spring weather shows up.
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Next - the Rovers are showing robustness, lasting long past their initial projections, so in addition to the solar panels, add an RTG to keep the electronics running at idle when dust storms threaten. Give them a chance to survive the storms. Maybe even to help survive until Mars' balmy spring weather shows up.
Some sort of solar panel cleaning device, too. A single clean could probably double the life of these rovers.
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Some sort of solar panel cleaning device, too. A single clean could probably double the life of these rovers.
How about a robot arm with a brush attachment? That way it can clean its own panels then drive to the helicopter and give that little panel a once-over as well.
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Some sort of solar panel cleaning device, too. A single clean could probably double the life of these rovers.
How about a robot arm with a brush attachment? That way it can clean its own panels then drive to the helicopter and give that little panel a once-over as well.
The visualization of that is simply adorable, like momma making sure the little one is cleaned up for picture day! But yeah, the rovers do have arms already so a brushlike attachment could be worthwhile.
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Presumably the airflow does blow some dust off when Ingenuity is in the air. The problem is when it's sitting on the ground trying to charge. Lots of dust in the atmosphere is reducing the amount of light getting to the solar panel so it's charging a lot slower. At the same time, it's getting colder so the helicopter is using more power at idle state to keep the electronics and the battery at a safe temperature. They've already adjusted the heater only to kick in at -40C but there's likely going to be a poi
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Or use the same thing that every mobile phone has which uses very little power - the phone vibrator. And have the 2 solar panels sloped differently. Does Ingenuity have one or more, if not then why not because dust has clearly been an issue before.
The panel being covered in dust strikes me as being a very easy problem to solve, i'm surprised they haven't.
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...Guessing it's mostly a weight issue, thin air and all that.
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Or even have a vibratory shake-off function like sensors on DSLRs?
Awesome performance (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's surprising how good off the shelf components be.
Of course it does not mean all off the shelf components are good, but if we can select good quality off the shelf components (good brand and not the crap cheapo stuff, I guess), we can presumably build good quality stuff for use in many places, cheaper then the officially certified components.
wipers (Score:2)
Maybe the next one needs wipers. The rover can carry a squirt of cleaning fluid and the wipers take over from there. Maybe the helicopter doesn't need its own solar panels at all, it needs a base station or to charge from the rover (they seem to be a team after all).
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But then it also has to not interact with the reactive parts of the regolith... a base station would limit the 'copter's reach, too. Maybe they could build the panels into the rotor somehow, like by using thin film solar applied to the blades. And include piezo elements to let them vibrate the panels while the rotor is spinning in order to try to detach dust.
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If the rover is the base station it only limits reach to extreme terrain. But yeah, seems like now that the concept is proven its just a process of making it better.
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I was thinking a foxtail attachment on the rover. Then it could brush off the solar panels on the helicopter every now and then. The brush would weigh too much to put on the helicopter itself.
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You'll need really big wipers to keep the Martian atmosphere clean of dust and the planet's rotational axis pointed the right way so that winter never arrives.
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That's like saying using your wipers on a foggy day will make the fog go away.
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I suppose if the fog is condensing on the windscreen then wipers would help. It is a combination of problems, one of them has solutions easily within grasp. Obviously, for this mission longevity was not the goal.
I think the little helicopter has done great things, and set the path to even greater things.
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Or just have the rover carry washing fluid and squirt the drone's panel(s) every now and then.
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Maybe it's a difficult problem. Maybe there is no suitable compound. Ethanol gets quite viscous even at 250K, and anything with a much higher molecular mass is likely to be worse. The list of options isn't millions of entries long.
Darn that government spending (Score:2)
This thing was only supposed to have five flights and it *checks notes* did 28! All that money wasted so a lousy helicopter could fly on Mars.
Reminds me of that other rover we sent up. Only supposed to last 90 days and the damn thing didn't stop working until fourteen years later [nationalgeographic.com].
Darn that government spending.
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Under promise and over deliver. It would be nice if that weren't the exception.
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I think it's super cool, and glad it succeeded.
But still...$80,000,000...for something they weren't sure was going to work, that was admittedly made from cell phone parts, and other off the shelf parts, and that
was piggybacking on an existing mission?
I guess it's an easy decision to make when it's not your money...
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You are that particular sort of idiot who knows a little but thinks they are an expert. You haven't even a vague idea of how little you know, which would make you dangerous in the unlikely event that you found yourself in a position to implement your ideas.
"Slightly different environmental conditions" means nightly low temperatures far lower than the average at Earth's South Pole and ground-level air density equal to that at an altitude of 22 miles on Earth. A high performance helicopter has trouble getting
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Actually, a couple of years ago they medivacced a couple of Sherpas off from camp 3 on Everest's South Col route. A bit above 20,000ft/ 6+km. But it was a pretty gnarly bit of flying, and they were seriously borderline in a very pimped helicopter. For most of the "Death Zone", you still have a choice of walking down or dieing.
Magnificent accomplishment! (Score:2)
This is the kind of stuff that made me love science when I was a kid. I started to lose hope when manned Moon missions were abandoned and most of the resources started going toward pissing around in low Earth orbit.
Watch Battery (Score:2)
> When it went dormant, the helicopter's onboard clock reset, the way household clocks do after a power outage.
The battery in my electric watch lasts for years, and is accurate over that time period to the second. Before ubiquitous internet connections, computers kept accurate time despite power cycles with (you guessed it!) a watch battery. I'm a bit astonished that the helicopter would be compromised by losing track of time.
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It was supposed to do 5 flights, it wasn't expected to last long.
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Most battery chemistries are optimised for room temperature and performance fall off steeply away from that optimum.
300 miles? (Score:2)
I guess that should read 300 million miles.
Re: 300 miles? (Score:1)
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So, no ... (Score:2)
Pfft, that's nothing (Score:1)
I've got 291 flights on my DJI Spark. Not to mention, that's here on Earth where there's drone-eating trees and idiots with guns who think they're being spied on.
Flying your drone on a barren, unpopulated world? That's for noobs.
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Does it run on solar power?
MMM....Hyperbole.... (Score:1)
Does the helicopter still work? Sorta. Okay - keep flying it.
Not OMG OMG OMG the thingy we spent ONLY $80million on flew more than once holy crikey!
Your $80m remote control helicopter doesn't impress me. Call me when it cost $1000 and flew 200 times.
Let's be honest here (Score:2)
As it is, great job all ~Boeing folks involved!
Four pounds drone (Score:1)
Is that earth pounds or mars pounds? Mass is a funny thing. And sure pound is mass, but they talk about it as it was weight. Maybe it evens out with the atmospheric buoyancy.
I think it is the definition of mass that trips me up, or rather that we does measure weight in the "wrong" unit. Maybe someone should invent a truer weight unit that reflects the gravity that mass is influenced by.
On another note, people get really attached to things and see them as having personality and this piece reads like it was t
Should've used a part of Richard Pearse's plane (Score:2)
New Zealander Richard Pearse was the first person to fly, as early as 31 March 1902, more than 18 months before the Wright brothers. His aircraft was also the first to use proper ailerons, instead of the inferior warping system that the Wrights used.
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a possible cure (Score:2)
Bristle brush (Score:2)
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Remember that they weren't even sure it would would fly.
I'm sure the next rover will have a better helicopter with some sort of cleaning mechanism.
Blow the solar panels (Score:1)