Communication Reestablished with NASA's 'Ingenuity' Mars Helicopter (nasa.gov) 37
"We have reestablished reliable communications with Ingenuity," reported the team lead for NASA's Mars helicopter, Teddy Tzanetos, in a blog post last week.
As detailed in our last blog post, for the first time in our yearlong extended mission we had a loss of communications with Ingenuity from the downlink of May 3 (Sol 427) and May 4 (Sol 428). After a week of anomaly investigation, two sols dedicated to data collection, and the heroic efforts of the Perseverance and Ingenuity operations teams, I am very happy to report that we have reestablished reliable communications with Ingenuity.
Based on all available telemetry, the helicopter appears healthy, and we have resumed a modified form of operations. Assuming winter recommissioning activities complete nominally, Ingenuity's 29th flight may occur in the next few sols.... All telemetry downlinked so far suggests that Ingenuity is healthy, with no signs of damage from the overnight cold cycles.
That's the good news.
The bad news? Telemetry from Ingenuity confirmed that the loss of communications was due to insufficient battery state-of-charge (SOC) going into the night, which resulted in a reset of our mission clock. This daily state-of-charge deficit is likely to persist for the duration of Martian winter (until September/October).
Challenges like these are to be expected: After hundreds of sols and dozens of flights beyond the five flights originally planned, the solar-powered helicopter is in uncharted terrain. We are now operating far outside our original design limits. Historically, Mars is very challenging for spacecraft (particularly solar-powered spacecraft). Each sol could be Ingenuity's last....
We have reached the point in Martian late fall/early winter at which Ingenuity can no longer support the energy demands of nominal operations. Starting on the evening of Sol 426, we believe Ingenuity started experiencing overnight battery brownouts (drops in the battery's voltage), which reset the electronics. Due to the seasonal decrease in available solar energy, increases in airborne dust density, and the drop in temperatures, the energy demand to keep the electronics powered and warm throughout the night has surpassed Ingenuity's available energy budget.... We expect to be in this challenging winter energy paradigm until around Sol 600, at which point we expect to return to being power-positive from sol to sol.
The blog post says NASA can cope with a resetting mission clock. But the helicopter's battery (and other electronics) are now facing overnight ambient temperatures of about minus 80 degrees C (minus 112 degrees F), "a lifetime risk to our electronic components." Although component failure has always been a risk that we have carried since rover deployment, that risk is now magnified... We do have limited electronics core module (ECM) component testing to suggest that select components may survive through the winter, but we cannot predict how the entire ECM will fare throughout winter. Cold-soaking electronics is believed to have caused the end of the Opportunity and Spirit Mars rover missions.
Given our elevated risk posture, our focus in the last several sols has been to prioritize data downlink from Ingenuity to the Helicopter Base Station (HBS). We have a handful of Heli-to-HBS transfer activities left before all unique data are copied from Ingenuity to the HBS. Specifically, we are copying flight performance logs, electronics logs, and high-resolution color images from the last eight flights that are still onboard Ingenuity.
After all critical logs are transferred, the team will proceed with a recommissioning phase during which we will reestablish Ingenuity's flight-readiness given our ongoing overnight cold-cycling. Like during the technology demonstration phase, we will perform a high-speed spin before proceeding to flight. Should Ingenuity receive a clean bill of health, we would be ready to execute a short sortie to the southwest in Flight 29. This flight will improve our radio link for approximately the next four to six months while Perseverance samples at the river delta.
In the meantime, the Ingenuity flight software team will be preparing a series of upgrades to enable advanced navigation features. These new capabilities will help Ingenuity ascend the river delta and continue its missions as a forward scout for Perseverance past winter.
Mashable notes that Ingenuity recently sent back new footage showing its April 8th flight — calling it Ingenuity's "farthest and fastest flight yet." Flying 33 feet above the surface of Mars on April 8, "it traveled 2,310 feet — a bit less than half a mile — at 12 mph." The whole record-breaking feat lasted a little over 2.5 minutes, but that's much longer than its first flight of 39 seconds in the spring of 2021. NASA increased the new video's speed fivefold, reducing its runtime to less than 35 seconds.
Based on all available telemetry, the helicopter appears healthy, and we have resumed a modified form of operations. Assuming winter recommissioning activities complete nominally, Ingenuity's 29th flight may occur in the next few sols.... All telemetry downlinked so far suggests that Ingenuity is healthy, with no signs of damage from the overnight cold cycles.
That's the good news.
The bad news? Telemetry from Ingenuity confirmed that the loss of communications was due to insufficient battery state-of-charge (SOC) going into the night, which resulted in a reset of our mission clock. This daily state-of-charge deficit is likely to persist for the duration of Martian winter (until September/October).
Challenges like these are to be expected: After hundreds of sols and dozens of flights beyond the five flights originally planned, the solar-powered helicopter is in uncharted terrain. We are now operating far outside our original design limits. Historically, Mars is very challenging for spacecraft (particularly solar-powered spacecraft). Each sol could be Ingenuity's last....
We have reached the point in Martian late fall/early winter at which Ingenuity can no longer support the energy demands of nominal operations. Starting on the evening of Sol 426, we believe Ingenuity started experiencing overnight battery brownouts (drops in the battery's voltage), which reset the electronics. Due to the seasonal decrease in available solar energy, increases in airborne dust density, and the drop in temperatures, the energy demand to keep the electronics powered and warm throughout the night has surpassed Ingenuity's available energy budget.... We expect to be in this challenging winter energy paradigm until around Sol 600, at which point we expect to return to being power-positive from sol to sol.
The blog post says NASA can cope with a resetting mission clock. But the helicopter's battery (and other electronics) are now facing overnight ambient temperatures of about minus 80 degrees C (minus 112 degrees F), "a lifetime risk to our electronic components." Although component failure has always been a risk that we have carried since rover deployment, that risk is now magnified... We do have limited electronics core module (ECM) component testing to suggest that select components may survive through the winter, but we cannot predict how the entire ECM will fare throughout winter. Cold-soaking electronics is believed to have caused the end of the Opportunity and Spirit Mars rover missions.
Given our elevated risk posture, our focus in the last several sols has been to prioritize data downlink from Ingenuity to the Helicopter Base Station (HBS). We have a handful of Heli-to-HBS transfer activities left before all unique data are copied from Ingenuity to the HBS. Specifically, we are copying flight performance logs, electronics logs, and high-resolution color images from the last eight flights that are still onboard Ingenuity.
After all critical logs are transferred, the team will proceed with a recommissioning phase during which we will reestablish Ingenuity's flight-readiness given our ongoing overnight cold-cycling. Like during the technology demonstration phase, we will perform a high-speed spin before proceeding to flight. Should Ingenuity receive a clean bill of health, we would be ready to execute a short sortie to the southwest in Flight 29. This flight will improve our radio link for approximately the next four to six months while Perseverance samples at the river delta.
In the meantime, the Ingenuity flight software team will be preparing a series of upgrades to enable advanced navigation features. These new capabilities will help Ingenuity ascend the river delta and continue its missions as a forward scout for Perseverance past winter.
Mashable notes that Ingenuity recently sent back new footage showing its April 8th flight — calling it Ingenuity's "farthest and fastest flight yet." Flying 33 feet above the surface of Mars on April 8, "it traveled 2,310 feet — a bit less than half a mile — at 12 mph." The whole record-breaking feat lasted a little over 2.5 minutes, but that's much longer than its first flight of 39 seconds in the spring of 2021. NASA increased the new video's speed fivefold, reducing its runtime to less than 35 seconds.
Why don't they coat / cover the solarpanels. (Score:2)
Little off topic here....
But I have been wondering why the hell Nasa doesn't cover the solar panels of these landers and rovers with some easy to remove film etc...
In My head it would be well worth to make system (even a little extra robotic arm) to peel of layers from the panels when they get dusty enough...
What am I missing here ? I know that these "films" would have impact on panel performance... But to My understanding in overall, it would pay of to extend mission duration times ten ( one good example i
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Not sure why you think it's off topic, but I am sure that they considered and used any coating that might help. Or maybe different kinds of coatings on different parts of the solar panels to see what works best in the actual Martian conditions. Also sure that NASA tested all of the candidate coatings as well as they could, but still, my main question remains:
Why a helicopter on Mars?
Would that weight have been better used for more instruments and experiments? Even including an experiment on solar panel coat
Re: (Score:3)
Why a helicopter on Mars?
To cover much more territory quickly. Granted, this one is just a proof of concept test. But we will gain experience flying around in the thin atmosphere and build bigger choppers with more capabilities.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Someone in a meeting, said, "Why don't we add a helicopter?", which precipitated a lot of interesting discussions about whether it would be possible to fly on Mars, and what it would take to accomplish that. Then, a huge design effort, in parallel with talking the project management into letting them try it, and at the end of it all, a home run. Mind you, it took almost 30 years between concept and flight:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/... [nasa.gov]
Re:Why don't they coat / cover the solarpanels. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why a helicopter on Mars?
Would that weight have been better used for more instruments and experiments?
I knew slashdot wouldn't let me down. Armchair engineers telling NASA how they're doing their jobs completely wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, no engineers around here, though I greatly failed at various universities.
But that is NOT the question I was asking, though your reply seems to be addressed to me. My concern is with the political side that may have approved the money for a Martian helicopter for reasons unrelated to science or engineering considerations.
If anything, I would congratulate the REAL engineers for all of their successes, but maybe "These are not the successes you're looking for."
Other people might respond "Do you really
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Re: (Score:2)
Are you talking to me? If so, then you should probably start by going back and reading what I wrote with your reading comprehension hat on.
If you were talking to someone else, [then] you should pay attention to which Reply link you click on.
If you're just proudly ignorant, then you should probably start by reading about the history of the Space Shuttle program, especially NASA's earlier proposals rejected by Nixon.
If you're sincerely stupid, then I can't help you, but I would remind you that some people notice the braying jackasses.
If you're paid to fake it, then NAK.
Looking at it, it doesn't seem interesting enough to censor. Even to me. But I guess I'll requote it on principle [and with the correction] and wonder what aspect pushed the trolls' buttons. Vague wonder. Not that I care, but I sort of wonder why I don't care.
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I think you're right and his Reply was misaddressed to me... However, in that case I have to say that his sharp elbow was somewhat justified because the engineers of NASA surely learned something about conditions on Mars from the long lifespans of the Mars Rovers. I remember reading some kind of technical report on how the seasonal Martian wind helped clean the solar panels... (But I also can't remember anything about coatings.)
Re: (Score:2)
NASA is a government agency, funded publicly, so naturally there are always going to be some politics involved. The competition for funding alone pretty much guarantees it.
That being said, I'm not sure how you figure that flying a helicopter on Mars is a political decision. You ask "why a helicopter and not other experiments?", to which I'd ask back "isn't flying a helicopter on Mars a pretty significant experiment itself?" To me, it seems eminently worthwhile to determine if this is a feasible way to ex
Re: (Score:2)
I acknowledge that it's an amazing technical accomplishment, but there are two main reasons why I think it was a dubious achievement. One is the difficulty itself of flying in such a thin atmosphere. Yeah, the low gravity helps, but it still takes a lot of equipment to fly in those conditions, even with the minimal payload of a small camera.
But more important to me is the old joke about "All dressed up and no place to go." There's not really any place to fly to on Mars. Also no reason to hurry to get there.
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I think in terms of scientific payback for the money, I'd wager that one helicopter took more mass than several rovers, and improved rovers could have covered a lot of terrain.
This isn't very clear. The helicopter is 1.8kg, and it landed with a rover which has a mass of 1025kg. The lightest NASA rover was the first, Sojourner, which has a mass of 11.5kg.
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Thanks for that data. I am quite surprised that the helicopter was that light compared to the rover, but of course NASA had the special priority of making it light to fly better.
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Would that weight have been better used for more instruments and experiments?
Flying a helicopter on Mars IS one of the experiments.
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Why? You think they didn't trust the math and wanted to test it? Or just because it sounded "cool" and on that basis they knew they could get politicians to vote for the money? Sadly, I think it was mostly the latter and none of the former. Real engineers tend to be good at math.
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Why a helicopter on Mars:
the current rovers navigate using onboard cameras. Footage of the surroundings is sent to mission control, they use that in combination with satellite photos of the area to find a safe route, then upload that to be driven the following day. The rover has some autonomy, but that's very limited.
This works, but it's slow: you can only plan a drive as far as the rover can see. A helicopter provides an extra camera that can be used to look at the terrain ahead, which helps plan longer kn
Not off topic, but NASA has addressed this. (Score:3)
So they have discussed this exact thing previously. As well as why they didn't include a mechanical system to clean or blow off the panels. And it all comes down to weight: The weight and added complexity of any of these systems is greater than just making the solar panels bigger so that it takes longer for dust accumulation to put them out of commission.
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Mars dust scientist here...
Yes, various dust clearing options have been considered, including peelable films. Short answer to your question is that clearing dust is not impossible but it's harder than you think, and anything you add to this adds complexity, weight, and has some additional failure modes.
Addressing peelable films... what exactly were you thinking of? Polymers, in general, darken with exposure to UV and radiation. Depending on which polymer, they might get brittle, or they might get sticky. I
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There are some basic fundamental problems with most methods of removing dust from panels as I understand.
1) - Some sort of air blaster or fan setup; Extra mission payload with limited use/utility for extending the life of the vehicle vs the tradeoff for science kit (can't be recharged once the gas has been expended etc), large/lots of fans needed in low density atmospheres etc.
b) - Some sort of wiper; Abrasion is a bitch, and mars dust is basically talcum fine basalt rock. Any mechanism which can wipe the p
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My head it would be well worth to make system (even a little extra robotic arm) to peel of layers from the panels when they get dusty enough...
If you can figure out how to make it work with little enough weight: sure. Those films are notoriously hard to remove with human dexterity. You've got to get the helicopter nearby, then detect the position of the peel tabs then peel them. And they'll ad weight to a helicopter which has to work in very thing air.
Don't forget the weight of the robot arm too.
On the othe
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I suspect countless people have asked the same question - why not some mechanism to clean the solar panels and extend the mission life?
Various answers in this thread address why this might be a non-trivial problem, due to issues of payload weight, complications of each technology, etc.
No doubt that if doing so was a mission design parameter, the engineers at NASA/JPL would have come up with a solution.
There are two pertinent answers:
1
If the goal is to have a long mission, then build a machine with a nuclear
Re: (Score:3)
If the goal is to have a long mission, then build a machine with a nuclear power supply, such Curiosity and Perseverance.
Too heavy, I'm afraid. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators come in at about 5 w/kg; too heavy to fly on a helicopter.
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a) For Ingenuity specifically, it was a 30 day mission.
b) For other missions in general, the bigger problem was dust suspended in the air. Covering the panels wouldn't change that.
Sonft long-bristle brush underneath rover (Score:2)
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When Spirit (or was it Opportunity?) died on day 1500 of it's 90 day mission, that was a mission failure, not a success. What it showed
News for nerds (Score:2)
And humans? (Score:3)
If these little bots (okay, some are the size of large golf carts) are having problems staying warm overnight, what is the plan for humans if we (ever) get to Mars? Are going to use some type of nuclear reaction to stay warm and provide electricity? It doesn't seem like the conditions on Mars are receptive enough for only solar panels, particularly as they would need regular cleaning.
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If these little bots (okay, some are the size of large golf carts) are having problems staying warm overnight, what is the plan for humans if we (ever) get to Mars?
Insulation
It doesn't seem like the conditions on Mars are receptive enough for only solar panels, particularly as they would need regular cleaning.
Insolation is about 2/5 (specifically 43%) what it would be on Earth so you would need significantly more panels, but you could still use solar. You would have to have a scheme for cleaning them, as you say.
It might make sense to use nuclear, except we'd have to have water for a small reactor that we could afford the mass budget to deliver. So it may well make more sense to start with thin film solar.
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https://www.nei.org/news/2021/a-nuclear-power-plant-arrives-on-mars
It seems like having some amount of practically failsafe power available on top of solar would be good for life support.
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This is a reminder that Ingenuity is on day 427 of a 30 day mission.
The plan for longer missions is "Plan for longer missions".
Persistence and resourcefulness (Score:1)
I am always impressed by the lengths the caretakers of these machines will go to in order to keep them running.
Just this week, I read about the MAVEN orbiter and its IMU issues. Its caretakers reprogrammed it to use stars to orient itself as a backup to the unreliable IMUs.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/... [digitaltrends.com]
Real Engineers, to be sure.
NASA got a surprise (Score:2)
When they were able to supply sufficient power to Ingenuity's camera, they made an interesting discovery:
https://static2.srcdn.com/word... [srcdn.com]