[ad_1]
The Ingenuity helicopter captured its first color image 5.2 meters above the Martian surface on its second flight on April 22. And now he’s gearing up for a third flight, scheduled for Sunday.
The helicopter hovered in place again to make three turns. This allowed Ingenuity’s color camera to capture images taken in different directions, before the helicopter returned to the center of the airfield. Ingenuity only collected black and white images with its navigation camera during the first flight on April 19.
The color image, shared by NASA on Friday, is the first taken by an aerial vehicle aloft on Mars. On either side of the image, you can see the landing areas of two of the helicopter’s four legs.
The shadow of the helicopter on the surface of Mars can be seen at the bottom of the image.
The view from the helicopter’s point of view reveals the traces made by the Perseverance rover when it initially set the helicopter down in the middle of its 33ft by 33ft (10m by 10m) airfield, now known as Field name of the Wright brothers.
There is also a preview of the Martian horizon in the upper right and left corners of the photo.
The helicopter team believes this image helps demonstrate the unique aerial reconnaissance capability of Ingenuity and other rotorcraft that may be modeled on it in the future.
Sunday flight
Ingenuity wastes no time and the 4-pound helicopter is expected to fly again on Sunday morning. Data and images will begin streaming into the control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., At 10:16 a.m. ET.
Each flight is a little more difficult than the next. For Sunday’s flight, the helicopter will climb to the same altitude – about 5 meters above the Martian surface – but this time it will increase its speed.
On previous flights, Ingenuity was moving at approximately 1.1 miles per hour (0.5 meters per second). Now the helicopter will increase this speed to 4.5 miles per hour (2 meters per second).
The helicopter will also fly 50 meters north before returning to land at its landing site.
The mission team is forecasting a total flight time of 80 seconds, the longest to date, and a total distance of approximately 330 feet (100 meters).
“And while the 4 meters of lateral movement in Flight 2 (2 meters out then 2 meters back) was excellent, providing a lot of great data, it was still only 4 meters. As such, Flight 3 is a big step, one in which Ingenuity will begin to experience freedom in the sky. “
Ingenuity, a technology demonstration, has another week to complete two more flights before the 31-day mission ends.
“Even though we conduct our flight tests in a thin atmosphere over 290 million kilometers from Earth, we model our methodical approach to experimental flight on the Wright Brothers approach,” Grip wrote. “Our plan from day one has been to prepare like crazy, fly, analyze the data (like crazy), and then plan an even more daring test on the next flight.”
Check back here on Sunday for updates on the historic third Mars Ingenuity helicopter flight.
[ad_2]
Source link