NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Completes First Flight With New Navigation Software - SciTechDaily

Compared to immoderate of the different flights this past year, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s Flight 34 mightiness not basal out. Wednesday’s palmy 18-second formation was adjacent shorter than Ingenuity’s archetypal flight; the Mars chopper simply popped up to a small implicit 16 feet (5 meters), hovered, past landed. Despite the flight’s elemental nature, the squad is precise excited due to the fact that of what it means for the aboriginal of Ingenuity.

Over the past fewer weeks, the operations squad has been astatine enactment installing a large bundle update aboard the helicopter. This update provides Ingenuity with 2 large caller capabilities: hazard avoidance erstwhile landing and the usage of integer elevation maps to assistance navigate.

Developed arsenic a exertion demonstration, Ingenuity was designed to run connected Mars successful flat, creaseless terrain similar that astatine Wright Brothers Field. As Ingenuity moved connected to exploring Jezero Crater alongside the Perseverance rover, we traveled done much challenging terrain than the squad had ever anticipated.

In erstwhile flights, Ingenuity’s pilots needed to find airfields escaped of immoderate rocks oregon different obstacles that could perchance harm the conveyance erstwhile landing. Jezero Crater is simply a rocky place, truthful harmless airfields person been hard to find! Using Ingenuity’s downward-facing navigation camera, this bundle update adds hazard avoidance connected landing. While successful flight, Ingenuity volition place the safest disposable landing site. When preparing to land, Ingenuity volition past divert implicit to this selected site. This capableness allows Ingenuity to safely onshore successful rockier terrain than before, providing our pilots with galore much imaginable landing sites.

Ingenuity’s navigation bundle was designed to presume the conveyance was flying implicit level terrain. When the chopper is flying implicit terrain similar hills, this flat-ground presumption causes Ingenuity’s navigation bundle to deliberation the conveyance is veering, causing Ingenuity to commencement really veering successful an effort to antagonistic the error. Over agelong flights, navigation errors caused by unsmooth terrain indispensable beryllium accounted for, requiring the squad to prime ample airfields. This caller bundle update corrects this flat-ground presumption by utilizing integer elevation maps of Jezero Crater to assistance the navigation bundle separate betwixt changes successful terrain and conveyance movement. This increases Ingenuity’s accuracy, allowing the pilots to people smaller airfields going forward.

Although Flight 34 whitethorn not look similar much, it was Ingenuity’s archetypal with this bundle update. The squad volition usage results from this elemental formation to commencement investigating these caller capabilities, ensuring that everything works arsenic expected connected the aboveground of Mars. The update brings retired caller functionality successful Ingenuity, making it a acold much susceptible conveyance and effectual scout for Perseverance. We’re each excited to spot wherever this update volition let america to instrumentality Ingenuity’s travel next!

Written by Joshua Anderson, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Operations Lead astatine NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory