3 For Mars

Message
Author
User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#141 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat May 15, 2021 8:08 am

Boac wrote:
Sat May 15, 2021 7:46 am
Some 'artists' impressions' of the 'Made in China' kit. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57122914. 'Landed' at 23:18Z on Friday. Let's hope its batteries last longer than PP's viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3531&p=291013&hilit=mouse#p291013

If the US Rover should meet the China Rover.............................? Could we have a contest? Which side of the road do the Chinese drive on?
I can't help myself, I have sought help at music videos anonymous but to no avail!

Why strive, just yield...



=))
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#142 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun May 16, 2021 11:47 am

An interesting thesis. Unproven, but huge news if true... (for those that are interested, you can sign up to researchgate for free)...

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ial_Images
Fungi thrive in radiation intense environments. Sequential photos document that fungus-like Martian specimens emerge from the soil and increase in size, including those resembling puffballs (Basidiomycota). After obliteration of spherical specimens by the rover wheels, new sphericals--some with stalks--appeared atop the crests of old tracks. Sequences document that thousands of black arctic “araneiforms” grow up to 300 meters in the Spring and disappear by Winter; a pattern repeated each Spring and which may represent massive colonies of black fungi, mould, lichens, algae, methanogens and sulfur reducing species. Black fungi-bacteria-like specimens also appeared atop the rovers. In a series of photographs over three days (Sols) white amorphous specimens within a crevice changed shape and location then disappeared. White protoplasmic-mycelium-like-tendrils with fruiting-body-like appendages form networks upon and above the surface; or increase in mass as documented by sequential photographs. Hundreds of dimpled donut-shaped “mushroomlike” formations approximately 1mm in size are adjacent or attached to these mycelium-like complexes. Additional sequences document that white amorphous masses beneath rock-shelters increase in mass, number, or disappear and that similar white-fungus-like specimens appeared inside an open rover compartment. Comparative statistical analysis of a sample of 9 spherical specimens believed to be fungal “puffballs” photographed on Sol 1145 and 12 specimens that emerged from beneath the soil on Sol 1148 confirmed the nine grew significantly closer together as their diameters expanded and some showed evidence of movement. Cluster analysis and a
paired sample ‘t’ test indicates a statistically significant size increase in the average size ratio over all comparisons between and within groups (P = 0.011). Statistical comparisons indicates
that arctic “araneiforms” significantly increased in length in parallel following an initial growth spurt. Although similarities in morphology are not proof of life, growth, movement, and changes
in shape and location constitute behavior and support the hypothesis there is life on Mars.
RS1.JPG
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

Boac
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17199
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:12 pm
Location: Here

Re: 3 For Mars

#143 Post by Boac » Sun May 16, 2021 11:52 am

It's a load of puffballs in my opinion.

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#144 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun May 16, 2021 12:03 pm

Boac wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 11:52 am
It's a load of puffballs in my opinion.
Maybe, but I am going to bet that you didn't read the full paper, did you? [-( ;)))
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

Boac
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17199
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:12 pm
Location: Here

Re: 3 For Mars

#145 Post by Boac » Sun May 16, 2021 12:08 pm

'Twas a feeble attempt at humour.....

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#146 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun May 16, 2021 12:11 pm

Boac wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 12:08 pm
'Twas a feeble attempt at humour.....
Not, it wasn't feeble, and I did laugh and am pulling your leg (as you well know)! ;)))
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#147 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun May 16, 2021 12:17 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 12:11 pm
Boac wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 12:08 pm
'Twas a feeble attempt at humour.....
Not, it wasn't feeble, and I did laugh and am pulling your leg (as you well know)! ;)))
Don't waste your time. I have read the paper again and done some checking on the author. A loony crank I am afraid...
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#148 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun May 16, 2021 12:25 pm

Mars is very in right now. NASA's Perseverance rover is up there searching for life, and the agency's Ingenuity Mars helicopter is pulling off daring aerial feats. But on Wednesday, Mars appeared in the news for all the wrong reasons. According to websites like the Daily Mail, scientists were making a pretty wild claim: Fungi were alive and well on the red planet.

The first thought: Ah *****, here we go again.

The "mushrooms on Mars and fungi on Venus" theory is a worn-out, debunked idea that appears like clockwork, about once a year. The headlines certainly are interesting: Imagine if we found fungi on Mars or Venus! It would literally rewrite our ideas about life in the cosmos -- but the articles rarely interrogate the scientific evidence for the wild claims.

Part of me wants to let it slide because in some cases any publicity really is good publicity, but this is bad science and some websites have erroneously headlined articles with "Scientists Found Evidence of Fungus Growing on Mars" when that is simply not the case.

So let's pull back the curtain and explain what is really going on (again!)

The 'Space Tiger King'
At the center, or sometimes just off to the side, of these outlandish claims is a man named Rhawn Gabriel Joseph.

According to his webpage "brainmind.com," Joseph is a lapsed neuroscientist who made major contributions to the field of neuroplasticity in the 1970s. Joseph has, for over a decade, published claims about life on other planets on his website and in pseudo-scientific journals he oversees.

His assertions sometimes make it to the big leagues and spill over into the press but, for the most part, they haven't landed in legitimate scientific journals or been scrutinized by other experts in space science.

Until 2019, when Joseph's claims really hit the big leagues. In November of that year, Joseph got a piece through peer review and into the journal Astrophysics & Space Science. Last June, I published a piece on Joseph and these claims, which eventually led to the journal retracting Joseph's article, stating "the article proffers insufficient critical assessment of the material presented and literature cited, and fails to provide a solid underpinning for the speculative statements made in the article which, in their view, invalidates the conclusions drawn."

But on Wednesday, Joseph's claims made it into another journal, known as Advances in Microbiology.

Day of the truffles
Advances in Microbiology is a relatively obscure journal published by Scientific Research Publishing, which is headquartered in China and has previously been caught out for republishing scientific articles, according to Nature. It has been accused of being a predatory publisher, charging scientists fees to be published in its journals without checking the quality of the submitted papers.

The new paper, dubbed "Fungi on Mars? Evidence of Growth and Behavior From Sequential Images" and available on ResearchGate, rehashes some of the old arguments for life on Mars, using inaccurate methodology to draw its conclusions. For the most part, Joseph and his co-authors use images obtained by NASA rovers and draw red lines and arrows to point out features they believe correspond to fungal growth.

"Claiming that mushrooms are sprouting all over Mars is an extraordinary claim that requires better evidence than an analysis of photographic morphology by a known crank who has claimed, on the basis of the same kind of analysis, that he has seen fields of skulls on Mars," says Paul Myers, a developmental biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who has followed Joseph's work in the past.

One experiment, performed by the authors, is to analyze the size and movement of "spherical specimens" in the paper. It routinely references previous work by Joseph as evidence for its conclusions. The team suggests it "would be surprising" if there were no life on Mars -- but this is not true. We have mountains of data showing the conditions of Mars are not conducive to life as we know it. Could fungi get around these conditions? Perhaps, but the evidence for that is thin.

After being alerted to the new paper on Wednesday, I sent emails to the associate editors-in-chief of Advances in Microbiology, asking for clarification around the peer review process. They have not responded to requests for comment.

I also emailed members of the editorial board listed on SCIRP's website, including Jian Li, a microbiologist at Monash University in Australia. He says he has not been on the journal's editorial board "for at least five to six years" and has not handled any of the papers in the journal.

Bad science
One of the bigger problems in publishing about Joseph's claims is allowing bad science to make its way to the public.

just found out there's life on Mars via **** unilad 💀

— jessica cheestring (@hozierthanthou) May 6, 2021


The pandemic has shown us that misinformation can be harmful, eroding the confidence in science, researchers and institutes. We've seen, time and again, how erroneous reports can go viral and then later be used to suggest scientists are backflipping on previous claims. To be clear, there's no backflip here. The majority of scientists agree that the conditions on Mars' surface are not great for fungi to flourish.

"All available evidence suggests the surface of Mars is not hospitable to life," says Brendan Burns, an astrobiologist from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

When publications promote the unscientific "mushrooms on Mars" theory without critique, it can be damaging for scientists like Burns and organizations like NASA, who are attempting to find legitimate signs of life on other planets.

If we were to find life elsewhere in the solar system, it wouldn't first appear in the Advances in Microbiology journal. Readers should remain skeptical of any fungi claims they see -- especially those promulgated by a single group of scientists.

And look, I'm totally happy to be wrong here. If it turns out this is fungus on Mars, I will be the first to say "we stuffed up."

I'm hopeful that NASA's Perseverance rover, which is rolling along an ancient Martian lakebed, might be able to find the first signs life once existed on the red planet. China's soon-to-be-delivered rover, Zhurong, could also help understand whether Mars harbored alien life forms. We'll have to wait and see.
https://www.cnet.com/news/sorry-nasa-ph ... g-on-mars/
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#149 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun May 16, 2021 12:38 pm

Mars has made fools of even initially credible scientists in the past.

Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

PHXPhlyer
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8239
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: PHX
Gender:
Age: 69

Re: 3 For Mars

#150 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri May 21, 2021 7:33 pm

Mars helicopter's next flight will be a scouting mission

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/world/ma ... index.html

(CNN)This upcoming flight on another planet was never part of the plan.

Once the Ingenuity helicopter completed its five flights to prove it could do so on Mars, its mission was supposed to be over.
Nobody told Ingenuity, which itself was an add-on to the Perseverance rover mission to explore the possibility of ancient life on Mars.
The little rotorcraft that could is taking flight for the sixth time next week to explore a new destination on its aerial tour of Mars.
During the upcoming flight, the 4-pound Ingenuity will act as an airborne scout, identifying intriguing features on Mars and touching down at a different airfield from its current home.
Ingenuity's cameras will collect stereo imagery of sand ripples and rocks. These images, in which photos are taken of the same object from different angles, produce a depth perspective and 3D effect. This will showcase the chopper's scouting capabilities.
The helicopter's team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has not yet announced the date of the flight, in which Ingenuity will fly at 9 miles per hour (4 meters per second) and spend 140 seconds in the air.
After graduating from the technology demonstration phase, Ingenuity is now officially in its operations demonstration phase. During this part of the helicopter's Martian mission, it will demonstrate capabilities that could be used by future aerial craft on other planets.

The Perseverance rover, which is gearing up for its own science mission to search for evidence of ancient life, will not take any images or video of the helicopter's next flight.
Ingenuity took this color image from an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) during its fifth flight on May 7.
Ingenuity took this color image from an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) during its fifth flight on May 7.
When Ingenuity was a technology demonstration during the month of April, the rover was technically on standby, acting as a communications relay between the little chopper and teams on Earth.

Now, while the robots will stay in communication with one another, they're going separate ways, and Ingenuity will continue to operate in a way that doesn't interrupt Perseverance's primary agenda.
Ingenuity's sixth flight will begin with the copter rising to 33 feet (10 meters) off the ground and flying southwest for 492 feet (150 meters). Once it reaches this distance, Ingenuity will capture color images of what the helicopter team considers to be an area of interest as the chopper flies south for 50 to 66 feet (15 to 20 meters).

Once Ingenuity takes these images, it will fly 164 feet (50 meters) northeast and touch down at a new airfield, called Field C.
This is also the first time the chopper will land at a place it hasn't surveyed during previous flights.
The flight plan is relying on images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the red planet for 15 years. Those images suggest the new airfield is flat and won't pose any risks when Ingenuity touches down.
Data collected by this veteran orbiter mission also helped NASA choose the site of Jezero Crater, where the rover and helicopter first landed on February 18.
We'll have to wait a little longer than usual for images of the sixth Ingenuity flight to return to Earth based on the new arrangement between Ingenuity and Perseverance. Rather than the day of the flight, they will be sent back in the days afterward.
Judging by Ingenuity's aerial tour of Mars so far, they'll be worth the wait.

pp

PHXPhlyer
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8239
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: PHX
Gender:
Age: 69

Re: 3 For Mars

#151 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri May 28, 2021 3:27 am

NASA's Mars helicopter goes on wild ride after navigation error

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/n ... r-n1268890

NASA's Mars helicopter goes on wild ride after navigation error
The wild, lurching ride is the first major problem since NASA's little Mars helicopter took to the Martian skies last month.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A navigation timing error sent NASA's little Mars helicopter on a wild, lurching ride, its first major problem since it took to the Martian skies last month.


The experimental helicopter, named Ingenuity, managed to land safely, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported Thursday.

The trouble cropped up about a minute into the helicopter's sixth test flight last Saturday at an altitude of 33 feet. One of the numerous pictures taken by an on-board camera did not register in the navigation system, throwing the entire timing sequence off and confusing the craft about its location.

Ingenuity began tilting back and forth as much as 20 degrees and suffered power consumption spikes, according to Havard Grip, the helicopter’s chief pilot.

A built-in system to provide extra margin for stability “came to the rescue,” he wrote in an online status update. The helicopter landed within 16 feet of its intended touchdown site.

Ingenuity became the first aircraft to make a powered flight on another planet in April, two months after landing on Mars with NASA's rover Perseverance.

The 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) helicopter aced its first five flights, each one more challenging than before. NASA was so impressed by the $85 million tech demo that it extended its mission by at least a month.

Saturday's troubled flight was the first for this bonus period. Engineers have spent the past several days addressing the problem.

PP

PHXPhlyer
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8239
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: PHX
Gender:
Age: 69

Re: 3 For Mars

#152 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat May 29, 2021 3:10 am

Mars helicopter survives to tell the tale of stressful flight

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/world/ma ... index.html

(CNN)When the Ingenuity helicopter took off for its latest flight on Mars, things didn't go quite according to plan.

But the little chopper muscled through its sixth flight on May 22 and survived, despite some unplanned swinging around in the Martian atmosphere.

The unexpected motion was caused by an image-processing issue that disrupted the flight plan. However, Ingenuity was able to get through the final 213 feet (65 meters) of its 705-foot (215-meter) journey and safely land on the Martian surface. And it will live to fly another day.
Here's what happened.
An ocean of motion
The little 4-pound helicopter that could had already completed all five flights planned for by its team on Earth by the end of April. When Ingenuity showed no signs of slowing down, its creators decided to extend its mission by another month and see what else it could do.
This flight was meant to be an aerial scouting mission, showcasing the chopper's ability to fly over new territory while moving at 9 miles per hour (4 meters per second) for 140 airborne seconds. It would use its cameras to identify intriguing features on Mars and touch down at a different airfield.
Ingenuity's sixth flight was scheduled to begin with the copter rising to 33 feet (10 meters) off the ground and flying southwest for 492 feet (150 meters). Once it reached this distance, Ingenuity would capture color images of an area of interest as the chopper flew south for 50 to 66 feet (15 to 20 meters).

Once Ingenuity took these images, it was supposed to fly 164 feet (50 meters) northeast and touch down at a new airfield, called Field C.
Data from the flight shows that the first 492 feet (150 meters) and 54 seconds went smoothly. Then, something went wrong and Ingenuity began to oscillate through the air, adjusting its velocity and tilting back and forth, according to Håvard Grip, Ingenuity's chief pilot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
This spinning motion afflicted Ingenuity for the rest of its flight. Onboard sensors show that Ingenuity endured pitch and roll motions of more than 20 degrees and spikes in power consumption, Grip wrote in an update.
When the copter is in the air, Ingenuity tracks its own motion using an onboard inertial measurement unit, which measure the rotorcraft's acceleration and rotation.

Tracking this information over time can be used to estimate the helicopter's location, how fast it's moving, and its orientation. The onboard computer can react and adjust quickly based on these motions.
This information is combined with input from Ingenuity's navigation camera. This downward-facing camera captures 30 pictures a second and sends them to the chopper's navigation system. Ingenuity is able to recognize time stamps and surface features to determine its actual location and make corrections to orientation, speed or position.

During Ingenuity's flight, it suffered a glitch while delivering images from the navigation camera. Only one image was lost, but that caused the rest of the images to be marked with incorrect time stamps.
The chopper's navigation system was operating based on inaccurate data and making adjustments based on those time stamps, causing it to spin.
Safe landing
Ingenuity lived up to its namesake, however, and survived this anomaly. It maintained flight and touched down within 16 feet (5 meters) of its predetermined landing spot.
The helicopter survived this wild ride because it was designed to tolerate errors without devolving into instability. Ingenuity's team also made the decision to stop relying on navigation camera images during the chopper's descent when it's landing. This caused Ingenuity to ignore camera images with incorrect data before landing, allowing it to stop spinning, level off and touch down at the right speed.

"In a very real sense, Ingenuity muscled through the situation, and while the flight uncovered a timing vulnerability that will now have to be addressed, it also confirmed the robustness of the system in multiple ways," Grip wrote.
"While we did not intentionally plan such a stressful flight, NASA now has flight data probing the outer reaches of the helicopter's performance envelope. That data will be carefully analyzed in the time ahead, expanding our reservoir of knowledge about flying helicopters on Mars."


PP

Boac
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17199
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:12 pm
Location: Here

Re: 3 For Mars

#153 Post by Boac » Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:44 am

The Rover is on its way to the edge of the Jezero crater, the site of an ancient Martian lake bed, which disappeared billions of years ago. The aim is to see if there are any signs of former 'life' and looking for evidence of water.

User avatar
TheGreenGoblin
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17596
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:02 pm
Location: With the Water People near Trappist-1

Re: 3 For Mars

#154 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:19 am

Boac wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:44 am
The Rover is on its way to the edge of the Jezero crater, the site of an ancient Martian lake bed, which disappeared billions of years ago. The aim is to see if there are any signs of former 'life' and looking for evidence of water.

A bit like visiting Luton then?
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

Boac
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17199
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:12 pm
Location: Here

Re: 3 For Mars

#155 Post by Boac » Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:28 am

More used to Crawley.............

PHXPhlyer
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8239
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: PHX
Gender:
Age: 69

Re: 3 For Mars

#156 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:37 pm

Photos show Chinese rover on dusty, rocky Martian surface

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/p ... e-n1270435

The dusty, rocky Martian surface and a Chinese rover and lander bearing small national flags were seen in photos released Friday that the rover took on the red planet.

The four pictures released by the China National Space Administration also show the upper stage of the Zhurong rover and the view from the rover before it rolled off its platform.
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/imag ... c-1031.JPG
Zhurong placed a remote camera about 10 meters (33 feet) from the landing platform, then withdrew to take a group portrait, the CNSA said.

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/imag ... -10312.JPG
China landed the Tianwen-1 spacecraft carrying the rover on Mars last month after it spent about three months orbiting the red planet. China is the second country to land and operate a spacecraft on Mars, after the United States.

The orbiter and lander both display small Chinese flags and the lander has outlines of the mascots for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The six-wheeled rover is surveying an area known as Utopia Planitia, especially searching for signs of water or ice that could lend clues as to whether Mars ever sustained life.

At 1.85 meters (6 feet) in height, Zhurong is significantly smaller than the U.S.'s Perseverance rover which is exploring the planet with a tiny helicopter. NASA expects its rover to collect its first sample in July for return to Earth as early as 2031.


In addition to the Mars mission, China's ambitious space program plans to send the first crew to its new space station next week. The three crew members plan to stay for three months on the Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, station, far exceeding the length of any previous Chinese mission. They will perform spacewalks, construction and maintenance work and carry out science experiments.

Subsequent launches are planned to expand the station, send up supplies and exchange crews. China has also has brought back lunar samples, the first by any country’s space program since the 1970s, landed a probe and rover on the moon’s less explored far side.

PP

User avatar
Woody
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 10244
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:33 pm
Location: Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand
Age: 59

Re: 3 For Mars

#157 Post by Woody » Mon Jun 14, 2021 3:22 pm

When all else fails, read the instructions.

Boac
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 17199
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:12 pm
Location: Here

Re: 3 For Mars

#158 Post by Boac » Mon Jun 14, 2021 3:30 pm

I bet he has put down a deposit on a plot on Mars, though.

PHXPhlyer
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8239
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: PHX
Gender:
Age: 69

Re: 3 For Mars

#159 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Jun 26, 2021 2:56 am

Mars helicopter takes it to the limit with more groundbreaking flights

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/world/ma ... index.html

(CNN)Where are you now, Mars Ingenuity helicopter? While it seems like the little chopper has been quiet, it turns out that Ingenuity has aced more of its flights -- and even got a software update to fix an annoying issue that impacted some of its previous outings.

The 4-pound helicopter has successfully flown eight times on Mars as of June 21, according to an update from Teddy Tzanetos, the helicopter operations lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
On its latest outing, Ingenuity flew 525 feet (160 meters) to the south and southeast to a new airfield. This was the copter's third flight of the operations demo phase, in which Ingenuity is proving its usefulness as an aerial scout without interfering with the Perseverance rover's science mission -- searching for evidence of ancient life on Mars.

The mission's seventh flight occurred on June 8.
Ingenuity continues to do well, and the team is planning for more flights that will push its capabilities. And the helicopter is doing even better now that its troublesome "watchdog" software issue has been fixed. That was deployed before the eighth flight.
The watchdog issue occurred before Ingenuity's first flight in April. Essentially, this watchdog timer acts like a safe mode when it detects a timing issue, preventing the helicopter's software from moving into flight mode and allowing the chopper blades to reach full speed or ascend.
While a temporary workaround was developed to bypass this issue, it was still possible that the watchdog timer would go off 15% of the time.
Last week, the helicopter's team successfully deployed a flight software update to Ingenuity to permanently fix the issue, providing more reliability as future flights are planned.
"Flight 8 confirmed that the FC flight software update was a success and that Ingenuity is ready to proceed with confidence into the next flights of the ops demo," according to an update from Tzanetos.

Ingenuity is also due for a navigation computer software update that will fix the issue that occurred during the chopper's sixth flight. Images captured by the navigation camera, which feed into the helicopter's navigation computer, had timing delays. Those images help Ingenuity to track its location, among other critical factors during flight. When the incorrect times and images were associated, it caused the chopper to wobble in the air.
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Ingenuity was able to land safely, but the team wants to prevent the issue from happening again so the chopper doesn't spiral out of control. It's also why the helicopter didn't capture any color images during its last two flights.

"This update will provide a mechanism for the Helicopter to detect and correct when image timestamps in the pipeline become out-of-synch/are dropped/skipped, while also re-enabling the capture of high-resolution 13-megapixel color images. This update is planned to occur in the coming days, followed by Ingenuity's ninth flight on Mars," Tzanetos wrote.
Although Ingenuity has already achieved the goals initially set by its team during its first few flights, the chopper continues to push the limits of what it can do -- and tag along with the Perseverance rover as it explores the site of an ancient lake bed on Mars.

PP

PHXPhlyer
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8239
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: PHX
Gender:
Age: 69

Re: 3 For Mars

#160 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:31 pm

Mars Ingenuity helicopter completes its toughest flight yet

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/07/world/ma ... index.html

(CNN)Ingenuity, the helicopter that accompanied the Perseverance rover on its Mars mission, has undertaken its ninth and "most nerve-wracking" flight since it first took off on the red planet.

Although we don't have the full details about what it accomplished, NASA confirmed in a tweet on July 5 that Ingenuity had completed the flight.

The tiny chopper was airborne for 166.4 seconds -- 2.8 minutes -- and flew at a speed of 5 meters (16 feet) per second, according to the tweet.
In a statement released before the flight, NASA revealed the helicopter would attempt to fly higher, faster and farther than ever before, flying 625 meters (2,051 feet) at 5 meters (16 feet) per second and remaining airborne for approximately 167 seconds.
This latest expedition took the helicopter away from Perseverance and over the Séítah region of Mars, an area characterized by sandy ripples that is very challenging terrain for rovers, according to the pre-flight statement.
The journey over unfriendly terrain was expected to challenge Ingenuity's navigation algorithm in a fundamentally new way.

"This onboard algorithm which lets Ingenuity determine where it is along the flight path, was designed for a comparatively simple technology demonstration over flat terrain and does not have the design features to accommodate high slopes and undulations that are to be found in Séítah," according to Håvard Grip, chief pilot and Bob Balaram, chief engineer for the Mars Helicopter Project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The undulations could cause Ingenuity to oscillate, they said. Other potential challenges included abrupt changes in the slope paths that could cause problems in finding the landing site, because Ingenuity's camera assumes the ground is flat.
"There is the distinct possibility that the cumulative effect of this is a large lateral error at the destination landing site, with delivery errors of many tens of feet (or meters)," Grip and Balaram said in the pre-flight statement. "It is possible that we will end up landing on a more treacherous, higher-relief surface than the relatively benign, sandy patches we have been able to pick so far.
"It is safe to say that it will be the most nerve-wracking flight since Flight 1."

Ingenuity was expected to take color aerial images of the rocks and ripples it passed over during the flight, which would help the rover science team, according to NASA.
Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 along with fellow traveler, Ingenuity, which completed the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19.

PP

Post Reply