The Mars Ingenuity helicopter is in the rare state that virtually everything it does, and every flight it takes sets a new record of some kind - even if it's simply the flight number. The helicopter's latest flight, on September 16th, set a new altitude record as well as the flight number at 59.
Screen capture from NASA JPL's X account
Flight 59 was entirely hovering, with no distance traveled other than that
roughly 66 feet vertical travel. Since its first flight in '21 and the
five flight program that was instituted for the little, four-pound helicopter,
its mission has primarily turned into a scouting and reconnaissance tool for
the Perseverance rover it flew to Mars attached to.
Over the course of its 59 flights, Ingenuity has traveled a total of 43,652 feet (13,304 m) and stayed aloft for 106.5 minutes, according to the flight log.
Before Flight 59, the helicopter's altitude mark stood at 59 feet (18 m). Its single-flight distance and duration records are 2,310 feet (704 m) and 169.5 seconds, set in April 2022 and August 2021, respectively.
Photo reconnaissance for the rover is a good mission for the helicopter.
Pretty darned good for a 'we have x amount of space and weight left, so let's add on this copter that's should last 3-4 flights of 20-30 seconds each.'
ReplyDeleteThere really are no good words to describe the 59th flight out of a 5 flight mission. The Voyagers, approaching the 50th year of a four year mission are a good analogy.
DeleteOr how long Spirit and Opportunity survived when they weren't supposed to.
DeleteIf only there were communists on Mars.
ReplyDeleteHa! Funny, John, funny!
DeleteAssuming this is Mars and not just the Arizona desert or Devon Island Canada.
ReplyDeleteOooookay. What makes you think it's not Mars?
DeleteIt's a simple picture, the Martians could easily fake it by throwing a pie plate and using a 110 film camera.
DeleteAnd, "Anonymous", you could easily be faked by writing a few lines of code. Are you fake, or are you real? Only your butt crack knows for sure.
DeleteI want to know who's out there with a tape measure determining that height...
ReplyDeleteSince I've done them before, I just assumed it was a radar altimeter. Those are CW radars, which is an old technology and pretty easy to make. Then I looked into it and found they're using a laser rangefinder. I guess radar is too simple for JPL!
DeleteBeing serious for a second, I have one of those in the shop for measurements when my tape measure is too short.
Measuring its travel and feet and meters is pointless now.
ReplyDeleteIt's now correct to say that Ingenuity has flown over 8¼ miles on Mars.
In Tom Wolfe Right Stuff terms, this means as of now, some pencil-necked coke-bottle glasses-wearing geek with a pencil protector and sitting behind a joystick is now the guy at the pinnacle of the flight pyramid.
Which is freaking awesome.
He/they should be on posters, at least at NASA and MIT, if not every high school, and college STEM department, in the nation.
Whenever this streak finally ends, Ingenuity's flight logbook (or whatever serves the purpose) needs its own special display case at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, right in the main lobby.
8¼ miles? On Mars??
Orville and Wilbur; Chuck; Neil and Buzz: look at what you started.
OT: I was going to be taking bets on how long it would be before the Anonymous Jackasses start braying and sharting themselves about how this is all faked. But I see Anonymous Jackass One already hit the comments with it 14 hours ago.
Fucktards gonna fucktard, sure as the sun comes up in the morning.
I want to know how the hell he came up with "Devon Island Canada". Is the environment all red rocks and the sun shrunken into a little spot up there?
Delete