NASA's Ingenuity Mission Is Over (nasa.gov) 73
cusco writes: After three years and 72 flights of its 5-flight mission the mission of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars is finally over. Images show that Ingenuity suffered damage to one of its rotor blades and will not be able to take off again. NASA's press release, also shared by cusco: Ingenuity landed on Mars Feb. 18, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover and first lifted off the Martian surface on April 19, proving that powered, controlled flight on Mars was possible. After notching another four flights, it embarked on a new mission as an operations demonstration, serving as an aerial scout for Perseverance scientists and rover drivers. In 2023, the helicopter executed two successful flight tests that further expanded the team's knowledge of its aerodynamic limits.
[...] Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days, more than 33 times longer than originally planned, Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, cleaned itself after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter.
Designed to operate in spring, Ingenuity was unable to power its heaters throughout the night during the coldest parts of winter, resulting in the flight computer periodically freezing and resetting. These power "brownouts" required the team to redesign Ingenuity's winter operations in order to keep flying.
With flight operations now concluded, the Ingenuity team will perform final tests on helicopter systems and download the remaining imagery and data in Ingenuity's onboard memory. The Perseverance rover is currently too far away to attempt to image the helicopter at its final airfield.
[...] Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days, more than 33 times longer than originally planned, Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, cleaned itself after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter.
Designed to operate in spring, Ingenuity was unable to power its heaters throughout the night during the coldest parts of winter, resulting in the flight computer periodically freezing and resetting. These power "brownouts" required the team to redesign Ingenuity's winter operations in order to keep flying.
With flight operations now concluded, the Ingenuity team will perform final tests on helicopter systems and download the remaining imagery and data in Ingenuity's onboard memory. The Perseverance rover is currently too far away to attempt to image the helicopter at its final airfield.
It did a great job. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sadly, the environment will not keep it intact, but we'll remember it fondly.
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Re:It did a great job. (Score:4, Funny)
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"he put that car in space, he can just drive to mars and get it"
C'mon, everyone knows that Teslas don't have that kind of range.
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It's all down hill, it's using regenerative braking.
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How long will that take though? :P
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He should build a museum there when the colonization begins ;)
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Don't worry, the universe will make short work of anything we've left laying around. Within a million years even the Apollo boosters in solar orbit will be shredded, and at the time scales of the universe a million years is an eye blink.
It was a good run (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a sad day, but the mini robot did a great job over there.
It was the first time we flew something on Mars. At first, noone was sure it would even properly unfold and set up, let alone work. But it worked beyond its most optimistic mission parameters.
Did I wish it continued forever? Yes.
But everything has an end.
The good thing is, its success will enable future missions to have more and better flying machines over there.
I'm not saying anyone should be worried, but (Score:5, Funny)
It sure looks like something bit off the end of that rotor blade...
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And we can never catch the biting on camera, and its so stealthy we can't track it.
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I've seen Predator. We just need to send Arnie with an AR-15/SP1 to Mars.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/t... [imfdb.org]
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IIRC, Larry Niven wrote about a creature seemingly composed mostly of claws and teeth called a "tax collector"...
Re: Video linked... (Score:1)
Yet we aren't offered better alternatives. Sad!
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The DNC won't let us have an alternative to the former Senator from MasterCard.
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We can pretend that the DNC didn't pull out all the stops to ensure that only their selected corporate-friendly candidate had a chance and just look at this year. Any "incumbent advantage" Biden had evaporated when he insisted on aiding in the ethnic cleansing of two million people and the slaughter of over twenty five thousand (so far), and declaring as a "lifelong Zionist" he will do nothing substantive to rein in the apartheid government of Israel. Now to add insult to injury he's starting another unwi
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The Democratic "leadership" seems to have a visceral hatred of Russians, if they were smart they'd have handed Ukraine to Russia intact the first week. The Kremlin would be stuck with a guerrilla war stretching from the Polish border to Vladivostok being carried out by people who have spent 50 years being trained by the CIA with a smuggling network second only to the Kosovo mob and funded by the billions the oligarchs have funneled out of the country since the fall of the Soviet Union. No one in DC has a
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The Democratic "leadership" seems to have a visceral hatred of Russians
No, they have a visceral hate of Putin, which is well founded. Russia could have been a valued and contributing member of civilized society after the fall of the USSR, instead they got just another little tinpot dictator. I feel bad for them, that they have to pay for their government, but that is how the world works.
The Kremlin would be stuck with a guerrilla war stretching from the Polish border to Vladivostok being carried out by people who have spent 50 years being trained by the CIA with a smuggling network second only to the Kosovo mob and funded by the billions the oligarchs have funneled out of the country since the fall of the Soviet Union.
They will get that regardless, it is not an either or. The overt Western support is just a bonus. We are degrading Russia' conventional forces at what are really bargain basement prices (w
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And the RNC's chosen candidate would have a different stance on Israel?
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Probably not. I think that apathy is going to play the decisive role in the presidential election this year. The Republican candidate has proven his incompetence and is probably insane, and the Democratic candidate openly supports crimes against humanity and may be getting us into another unwinnable war. If "None Of The Above" were a ballot choice it would probably win hands-down this time.
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Everyone said that in 2016 too and look what happened...
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What stops? He's the president and therefore the presumptive nominee, is it really a shock?
Which is the poorest nation on the planet?
Sorry for you, you can have the purest intentions, pure as the driven snow but if you threaten 25% of global shopping there are consequences. You know those boats also carry food and humanitarian aid too right?
Hey it's your right to pull the handle for Trump, I am sure he bring his famously steady hand to the middle east.
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The MSM very carefully avoided mentioning that Ansarallah was only targeting shipping headed for Israel, it wasn't until after the third time that we attacked Yemen that they expanded their targeting to include US-flagged vessels. Non-Israel related shipping was passing unimpeded and traffic through the Suez Canal was still 70% normal, but now the US has started preventing Russian vessels from entering the Red Sea for no discernible reason. Satellite photos show the Israeli port of Eliat empty for the fir
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traffic through the Suez Canal was still 70% normal
So you agree with me?
Was the shipping heading for Israel IDF boats or civilian ships?
That's all just a roundabout way to defend piracy. If the Houthis want to go fight for Gazans they should go to Gaza and fight, hell I support them in that effort.
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The MSM very carefully avoided mentioning that Ansarallah was only targeting shipping headed for Israel
They always mentioned it, and noted it was not accurate from the very beginning. These are just pirates, nothing more. They have been doing this on and off for many years before the recent conflict in Gaza and it has never been about principles.
now the US has started preventing Russian vessels from entering the Red Sea for no discernible reason.
Good for them if they can do that.
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Pirates try to capture ships, not sink/damage them. Boarding them and taking everything on board like the US did to an Iranian ship the other day is piracy. I think they stole the entire ship, but haven't followed the story closely.
Preventing ships from traveling the international waters, whether they be Russian or anyone else, is illegal under the Law Of The Sea, so the US is no less in violation of international law as Yemen.
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Ships heading for Israeli ports. I don't think any of them were Israeli naval vessels, Israel always prefers to put American sailors and soldiers in harm's way rather than their own and American presidents always seem happy to do it. Seems a vile custom to me.
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So pirates attacking civilian ships, got it. .
Oh and they shot down a US drone on November 8th
And fired missiles at the USS Carney on December 3rd
And enough countries were concerned that not just the US but 20 nation coalition and even more taking their own actions like India.
Nobody, and I mean nobody likes the Houthis besides Iran and if anything they are making things more difficult for Gaza.
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Pirates try to capture ships, not sink/damage them.
You mean like this? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/w... [nbcnews.com] Not that sinking them is exactly legal either...
Preventing ships from traveling the international waters, whether they be Russian or anyone else, is illegal under the Law Of The Sea
So America is doing to them what they are doing to Ukraine in the Black Sea? What is good for the goose, as they say. Haha.
Boarding them and taking everything on board like the US did to an Iranian ship the other day is piracy. I think they stole the entire ship, but haven't followed the story closely.
Yemen is under a UNSC arms embargo. Totally fine with me someone is enforcing it.
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They shot down a drone that was overflying their territory without permission. Perfectly acceptable. They fired at the Carney after it entered their territorial waters, was warned, and refused to leave. Also perfectly acceptable.
20 nation coalition
LOL. How many actually sent ships, and how many sent a handful of sailors so that DC could claim them as "allies"? And then France immediately pulled out because they were told they would be taking orders from the Pentagon rather than Paris, and French shipping wasn't being tar
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Got proof it was over Yemen territory and not international waters? Same for the Carney.
So you don't dispute there was a large coalition. Terrific, I'll take that W, everything else is distraction with obvious explanations. It's a global economy, global shipping affects everyone, not just the ships origin (and ship origins are all bullshit anyway, that's how you can claim they are targeting Israeli ships and not say the Cayman islands, you e already conceded this)
Successful how? You really think Israel
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In the video linked, why did the guy have to mention "President Biden"?
Whiners gotta whine. Had you bothered to listen what was said, President Biden was mentioned because of the comments he made after Ingenuity made its first flight.
But ya. Whine because President Biden was mentioned by the head of NASA. That's what's important. Not Ingenuity and what it accomplished.
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A shame that you were modded down. Thank you for pointing out the stream of propaganda as being propaganda. People seem to have a deep emotional need to fall for it.
0.88% of Earth's atmosphere... (Score:2)
0.88% of Earth's atmosphere to push against. What NASA engineers can do never ceases to amaze me.
R.I.P., little buddy, you did amazing work! :)
Re:0.6% of Earth's atmosphere... (Score:2)
Oops, it's 0.6%!
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Yeah, engineering something that could achieve lift in such a rarified environment is a pretty damned stunning achievement. NASA has done some absolutely spectacular things, but a helicopter flying on Mars has to sit somewhere near the top of that list.
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Even moreso because they got it to work first try and even improved the thing (understandably, just the software) while it was on Mars.
Last time for my favourite fact (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly one human being is known to have been alive for both the Wright Flyer's first flight and Ingenuity's.
Kane Takana [wikipedia.org] was 11 months old when Orville first took off; and 118 years old when Ingenuity first took off. She passed away on the first anniversary of its maiden flight.
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Good trivia!
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NASA should name the final resting place of Ingenuity to "Takana Airfield" in her honor.
I miss the days of geek engineering (Score:3)
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Ingenuity - overengineered to near perfection. Completed 72 out of 5 planned missions! I love to learn about it, even though it leaves me somewhat disappointed when I get back to our every day devices, cars, apps, etc. Mass production - race to market engineering done by people who do it for a paycheck, rather than because they are passionate about it.
I wonder how many more missions that run 10 times the expected lifetime NASA has to do before certain people give up on the whole "only private companies can do anything right" thing.
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Apparently many, given comments lower in this thread: https://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23205524&cid=64189952 [slashdot.org]
Re:I miss the days of geek engineering (Score:4, Insightful)
Secondly, there is the unknown unknowns. passing through the space between the earth and Mars has a bazillion unknowns that we can only guess at... sometimes those guesses are informed by the last time we tried to make that passage, other times by accepted theory, but they are still unknowns. Now, for every unknown, there are another bazillion unknown unknowns, meaning unknown things we don't even know could be an issue, much less being an issue we know, but don't know the answer to.
Sure, I want NASA to spend that extra money if it leads to an increase in mission duration.
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Or when the cost of failure is high, like airliners.....OOOPS....er, em, what was the question again?
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It reminds me of the Opportunity rover, which ran for 5,111 days of its 90-day mission.
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Or Voyager, which was only funded as far as Saturn, or Hubble, which was supposed to be replaced with a more modern telescope after a decade, or Sojourner, which was designed for 7 days and lasted 95, or Galileo which was finally deorbited 8 years after entering Jupiter orbit, or . . .
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I wouldn't say overengineered. It was largely using commodity parts. The visual navigation was done on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 - little different than a Samsung smartphone from 5-10 years ago - definitely not space-rated! The altimeter was a Garmin LIDAR product that you can buy from Sparkfun Electronics [sparkfun.com]. The IMU was built around a Bosch BMI-160 - typically found in smartphones. The cameras (color for interesting stuff, B&W for navigation) were like
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Damn you Boeing (Score:2)
Which bolt did you forget this time? (shakes fist)
This was a triumph (Score:1)
Nelson (Score:3)
For my money, I'd much rather have the deputy director, Pam Melroy, have the lead job. She came up through the Air Force as a test pilot, is a combat veteran, worked in the Columbia accident recovery and investigation teams, was Shuttle pilot on two flights, and Shuttle commander on a third flight.
I suppose as a political appointee for a high-profile government agency, it makes sense to have a political animal in that role: a well-connected Beltway insider, a Congressman who managed to bully his way onto a Shuttle flight, followed by a long stint as Senator. Maybe it's best to have the politician out in front, while the more qualified deputy tries to get things done out of the spotlight.
It can probably still fly (Score:1)
I regularly fly R/C coaxial-rotor things with entire blades missing (quadcopters too). It just takes some software tweaking if your flight controller isn't very good. If it is good then you don't need to do anything, it just works and the microcontroller can compensate for the imbalance. This was part of my research before building rescue craft so I could make sure they could continue to work even if damaged.
Sounds like they just need better software developers to get it back in the air.
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Keep in mind that Ingenuity was designed in 2014, and had to use hardware able to exist in the radiation of transit and on the surface. The CPU for example is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which not only has to run the avionics and cameras and do the navigation and recognize a safe landing place, etc. There's not a lot of room for flexibility in hardware that old, plus it's running Linux rather than a custom OS so there's that overhead as well. By the time a fix could be designed that squeezed in
Re: It can probably still fly (Score:2)
Somewhere in the cubicle maze in a remote office, a gopher pops his head up and says, Come again?
Winter (Score:2)
Are they saying it was too cold to fly, they did it anyway, then the computer lost power, reset, and it crashed, losing the asset for all time?
I mean, it wasn't O-rings this time, but come on, NASA!
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No, you misunderstand. It wasn't designed to survive the cold nights of the Martian winters, which would have required auxiliary heaters that the solar panel and batteries couldn't support. That it did was a big surprise, and an important finding for future missions. They aren't sure yet what caused the damage to the rotor, they can still communicate just fine with the craft but the damage is extensive enough that it will never lift off again.