Ingenuity Mars Helicopter almost crashed during 6th flight but survived after anomaly

INGENUITY ALMOST CRASHED DURING RECENT FLIGHT!

I've been working my butt of helping a Veteran friend of mine today, so haven't been too active...

NASA indicates that they had some issues with Ingenuity on its recent flight... Read on for the details, then watch...

"On May 22, 2021 NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completed 6th flight on Red Planet but almost crashed due to unexpected anomaly. On the 91st Martian day, or sol, of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter performed its sixth flight. The flight was designed to expand the flight envelope and demonstrate aerial-imaging capabilities by taking stereo images of a region of interest to the west. Ingenuity was commanded to climb to an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) before translating 492 feet (150 meters) to the southwest at a ground speed of 9 mph (4 meters per second). At that point, it was to translate 49 feet (15 meters) to the south while taking images toward the west, then fly another 164 feet (50 meters) northeast and land.

Telemetry from Flight Six shows that the first 150-meter leg of the flight went off without a hitch. But toward the end of that leg, something happened: Ingenuity began adjusting its velocity and tilting back and forth in an oscillating pattern. This behavior persisted throughout the rest of the flight. Prior to landing safely, onboard sensors indicated the rotorcraft encountered roll and pitch excursions of more than 20 degrees, large control inputs, and spikes in power consumption. The resulting inconsistencies significantly degraded the information used to fly the helicopter, leading to estimates being constantly “corrected” to account for phantom errors. Large oscillations ensued." NASA

Credit: nasa.gov, NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Thomas Appéré

Enjoy...
Kerry
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