Unscheduled landing by Ingenuity now confirmed (see Description)

Episode 122

[kaisersozeh]

Just wanted to say - everything about this channel is absolutely perfect, and it should have a million more subscribers.

[polocarthaigh]

Always glad to realize that it's Sunday and questions will be answered in a hunky-dory fashion. Thanks as always!

[RyanEmmett]

Thanks for another great update. Let's hope that Ingenuity is OK and continues to fly many more times.

[TropicalCoder]

I noted that at least Ingenuity must have had a very soft landing. There were no skid marks or other impressions in the ground beneath its feet.

[garyknight]

Thanks for the update. Is it me, or did the hi-res photo show debris on top of the solar panel? We know that Ingenuity throws up dust, but, to my eyes it looked like bigger debris than dust. Fingers crossed all's well.

[yuriyolean]

I was also confused by the lack of images from flight 53. They might be explained by an emergency landing. Usually, the program is supposed to take images along the way. Between 10 and 13 color images and a lot of black and white images of the Navigational camera. Usually, just at the end of the flight, it starts sending the "Landing images (10-12 black and white images of the Nav cam)" almost online as a separate package, but if there was an emergency landing the program of a "separate package" wouldn't work. The question is - where are the remaining (7 or 10 color images) already taken? And the answer might be unpleasant to think about.
Hypophysis: Maybe on its way, Ingenuity detected a low battery state and started an emergency landing procedure. It might even crash-landed. The battery completely depleted - and all the images of Flight 53 were lost. Then the system rebooted to the "Contact Perseverance" mode, a mode which was used right after the Ingenuity detached from the Perseverance in the first days (Sols) on Mars. This mode was also used during Martian winter because the batteries didn't fully charge, and during the night Ingenuity was dead cold.
This would explain why the next flight (54) was only 5 meters - the team is not sure the helicopter can lift itself at all. They need: 1) to check if the sensor which calculates available charge in the batteries is working properly 2) Check if the previous flight 53 didn't leave strange indentations in the ground which would indicate a crash landing. 3) to check if there was an emergency landing using a different method - I suspect the asked Perseverance team to make a video of flight 54 (the video might have shown a wobbly solar panel, or a leg detached silver foil which surrounds the body of the craft) that is why we see two perspectives of Mast Cam Z - (Left and Right) cameras took images of the helicopter with very different Zooms - this is usually done if the Ingenuity team asked Perseverance to make a video of the flight.
I tried to find the indentations left by Flight 53 in images of the 54th flight, but I couldn't even after enhancing the images. This might mean: 1) I'm not good at finding the 4 leg indentations 2) While doing the horizontal flight (just going up and down) the helicopter understood that landing on the same spot is unsafe and landed in a slightly different position - this would make sense because if flight 53 was an emergency landing or crash landing, the helicopter lands on a random area. On the other hand, the autopilot during flight 54 might have decided to land on a safer area. You can even see in images of flight 54 that it lands on a brighter area which the onboard autonomous navigation deems safer.
Yes, this reading was worth an article) Congratulations, you read till the end).

[knutthompson]

Given the startling durability Ingenuity has demonstrated, I can’t be too upset if it is having some issue. Hopefully it gets resolved and it can keep on going.

[patroklosana]

How i love getting lost in those pictures and having you narrating.
Thank you

[cibinskymojo]

Thanks! Great video as always, Mars Guy. I admit I am a bit worried about Ingenuity...

[AerialWaviator]

Thanks for providing some insight into 'why' Flight 54 was a pop-up flight. Had been wondering the same questions. Hopefully the team at JPL can provide more of a status update, and a generalized exploration strategy for the coming couple months.
The Flight 54 Log has no accompanying description, just flight time, height stats. That Ingenuity made changes to it's flight plan and appears to be operating well (both Flight 53, 54 with good landings) says much about Ingenuity's flexibility and ability to deal with unknowns.

[bobmillerick]

That would be a great name for one of the next rover and helicopter- "Hunky" and "Dory". Good update MG.

[caevans]

Between P/I and Webb, these are scientific and engineering miracles! A helicopter on Mars?! Seeing BNs yr old galaxies?! What a time for science!❤

[topcattruffles]

Looking forward to finding out which theory is the correct one. If they can figure it out.
Always nice to know that I have this channel to keep me updated on the goings on on Mars….
Thank You Mars Guy! 👍🏻🍻😎

[mrln]

I hope NASA can start to provide expert direct updates to Mars guy, since they are looking interested in open source science.
Nice to have someone doing the leg work for updates to the public.

[Sheaker]

Thank You Mars Guy for covering this update! The image of Perseverance taken from Ingenuity is OUTSTANDING! To be hones, I'd rather like to learn that it was a successful emergency landing. It would be good proof of this technology.
Dear Mars Guy, They gathered just a tiny amount of this coating in previous episode. Do we know if it was locked in sampling tube or not?

[robloggia]

No matter what happens, I think it's safe to say in hindsight the we should've named the helicopter perseverance.

[pixelchi]

Could have been a hiccup in the flight avionics or maybe a dust devil was spotted in the area, and it was decided to land Ingenuity while the issue was resolved. In any event, it looks like Ingenuity is back flying as planned.

[Slein-bsty]

I just love these videos and i thank you for making them!

[yoram_snir]

This is so cool, emergency landing on Mars 😱 as usual, great reporting. Thank you so much for all the hard work.

[stephenhicks]

I am asking myself if 'Ginny' might be starting to show signs of 'wear and tear' because it has completed so many more flights than for which it was really intended. How are the 6 Sony VTC-4 batteries going for instance? Can any one tell me? Another great episode. Why Mars Guy doesn't have 10^6 subscribers is a mystery to me.