What happened to Ingenuity?

Episode 112
The helicopter team provided an update this week about recent challenges communicating with Ingenuity, but nothing about why it hasn’t flown in more than a month. Is it a communication issue or something worse?

[bobbalaram]

Priority is to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance. Flying deliberately into radio shadowed regions is therefore considered acceptable to Ingenuity's operations team. Eventually the rover will complete its current science activities and, as part of its long range plan, move to locations favorable for communication.

Also, Ingenuity's automated landing site algorithm typically deflects the planned landing location by only a few meters, so that does not significantly change the overall communication situation.

A major factor is that the Ingenuity base station antenna is not in the most favorable location on the rover. As the helicopter was a late addition, that was the best that could be had. The metallic clutter on the rover then becomes a big factor at this location and makes the radio signal strength highly dependent on rover heading, which in turn varies a lot depending on the science operations underway. Distance and intervening terrain also reduce signal strength.

The helicopter flight planning process uses a sophisticated radio propagation model that gives a very good estimate of the expected signal strength at any planned landing site for a given rover location and heading. This is used in conjunction with airfield selection tools, navigation performance models to estimate flight path delivery errors, and consultation with rover planners to plan each flight.

[kendokaaa]

Even if Ingenuity ends up being left behind, it has done a lot more than it was planned to do

[timgarrett]

Those two are a TEAM! Coach needs to make sure they can see each other! Mars Guy does a very good job of explaining this! Thank you!

[Erasmuspipebagger]

Great content as always, and as always I was waiting for "Here's Mars guy for scale!" You never fail to deliver. Please keep up the fantastic work.

[kasuha]

Now that's really curious why they decided to send Ingenuity to that spot that was behind a hill from Perseverance's point of view even at that moment. I thought the two teams were cooperating with each other?

[neilmusgrove]

As straight forward and informative as always, thanks for keeping up the good work!

[rjung_ch]

Thanks Mars Guy for the constant stream of your great analysis! 👍💪✌

[rickc]

Oh, my. I await the next episode of "As the World Turns". Great job as always, Mars Guy, thanks!

[Alienalloy]

my new go to for latest mars info, great content and really appreciate the mars guy in shots to give perspective to what were looking at, no one els does this.

[_koji]

That's a very unfortunate news, I hope they're able to find a way to get in touch with Ingenuity again. Thanks for the update!

[joeskop]

Good luck to Ingenuity to be again on flight as soon as possible.

[gufdrrh]

🤞 can't end like this the little guys given us so much

[jaypaint]

PSA: Keep in mind that the original planning, if my memory serves me right, was only for fifty sols (or Earth days, not sure which). It has far, far outlived that.

[bobbalaram]

Pop-up flights to reestablish communications as a way to overcome the effects of terrain have been considered, both as a deliberate way to extend the operations range as well as for contingency situations. They have not been incorporated into the current set of flight software upgrades executing on the helicopter.

[GrouchierThanThou]

When Ingenuity can't reach Perseverance for x amount of days, why don't they just let that automatically trigger it to fly straight upwards as far as it can to try and establish a line of sight for communication and receive a new flight plan towards a landing spot in Perseverance's line of sight.

[RogerGarrett]

Perhaps they need to upload some additional programming to Ingenuity that tells it to do a straight up and down flight attempting to contact Perseverance if it hasn't received a signal from Perseverance after some specific period of time.

[markusrobinson]

We're rooting for you Ingenuity! You've outperformed. You won't be abandoned.

[johncnorris]

Excellent use of graphics to enhance your words!

I hope they get a clear line of sight soon so Ingenuity can fly again.

[vibe]

0:57 - If it wasn't for Mars Guy, I would've assumed that was 2 meters off the ground. Thanks Mars Guy!

[melvinmccoy]

You do a great job keeping us involved and up to date. Thanks