Perseverance Rover

Curiosity Rover has captured stunning images of the rare, shimmering clouds that exist on Mars. clouds are rare on the Red Planet due to its thin, dry atmosphere. Clouds can typically be found at the planet’s equator during the coldest parts of a Martian year when Mars is farthest from the sun.
They look so amazing, and sometimes it even seems to me that it's on Earth. Do you agree?

I agree JacobCouper, I could not believe it when NASA said that the clouds were on Mars.
 
Curiosity Rover has captured stunning images of the rare, shimmering clouds that exist on Mars. clouds are rare on the Red Planet due to its thin, dry atmosphere. Clouds can typically be found at the planet’s equator during the coldest parts of a Martian year when Mars is farthest from the sun.
Curiosity has its own thread:

 
Took the liberty of copying it over, hope you don't mind.
 
Successful seventh flight of Ingenuity:

View: https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1402408813156724737


View: https://twitter.com/nasajpl/status/1402416997011394566


From a member of the team: "No sign of aging yet in the actuator system. With each flight we gain additional real world info on the performance of the rotor and its thermal characteristics, which allows us to incrementally increase allowable flight times."

View: https://twitter.com/nasajpl/status/1402417440185716736


From a helicopter team member: "No anomalies in flight 7, Ingenuity is healthy!"
 

Good news, so that means that the next NASA mission after Perseverance and the sample return mission could be a helicopter, I for one cannot wait to see what this future Mars helicopter will look like.
 
Flight 8 Success, Software Updates, and Next Steps


Excellent news for Ingenuity, a successful flight eight to a new airfield and another set of software updates, ingenuity is starting to look a lot like my computer. :eek:
 
View: https://twitter.com/free_space/status/1410686382746468353


NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter will attempt to overfly a region of key interest to scientists on the rover Perseverance mission, pushing ongoing flight demonstrations into the realm of operational mission support. On Flt. 9, time TBD, #MarsHelicopter will

View: https://twitter.com/free_space/status/1410686383702769668


fly over a sandy region called Seitah strewn with finely layered rocks. "One interpretation is that it is a former lakebed, so it would be one of the highest priority targets for us to get to,” Project Scientist Ken Farley tells @AviationWeek. Too rough for rover to traverse,

View: https://twitter.com/free_space/status/1410686384579387393


team found one access point for a sample collection but, it'll take several months to reach. "We don't want to spend several months driving only to discover there’s nothing there, so we’re hoping we can get the helicopter to do some reconnaissance to inform our plan," Farley says
 
View: https://twitter.com/nasajpl/status/1412092497552019458


#MarsHelicopter pushes its Red Planet limits.
The rotorcraft completed its 9th and most challenging flight yet, flying for 166.4 seconds at a speed of 5 m/s. Take a look at this shot of Ingenuity’s shadow captured with its navigation camera. go.nasa.gov/ingenuity

So Ingenuity has reached its fastest recorded speed in flight 5 m/s and also flying for longer as well which is good news, I cannot wait to see what NASA do with Ingenuity on flight ten. :cool:
 
Ingenuity reaches a record height on its tenth flight:

View: https://youtu.be/7g8H2gmq7HI

View: https://twitter.com/nasajpl/status/1419152522757894147


The #MarsHelicopter’s success today marks its 1-mile total distance flown. It targeted an area called "Raised Ridges." This is the most complex flight yet w/ 10 distinct waypoints and a record height of 40 ft (12 m). Its scouting is aiding @NASAPersevere. go.nasa.gov/3dci8jE
 
Ingenuity reaches a record height on its tenth flight:

View: https://youtu.be/7g8H2gmq7HI

View: https://twitter.com/nasajpl/status/1419152522757894147


The #MarsHelicopter’s success today marks its 1-mile total distance flown. It targeted an area called "Raised Ridges." This is the most complex flight yet w/ 10 distinct waypoints and a record height of 40 ft (12 m). Its scouting is aiding @NASAPersevere. go.nasa.gov/3dci8jE

Well done Ingenuity for reaching a dizzying height of 40ft (12 m), I hope that NASA don’t push Ingenuity too far just in case the worst happens.
 
After testing a bristling array of instruments on its robotic arm, NASA’s latest Mars rover gets down to business: probing rocks and dust for evidence of past life. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/signs-of-life-on-mars-nasas-perseverance-rover-begins-the-hunt

Excellent news about Perseverance, let’s hope that it is not long before we find evidence of past microbiological life on Mars.
Yeah, I am looking forward to some news from the Perseverance mission. I guess, there is a chance to find some microbiological life on Mars
 
A cool little fact is that to take off the cover of the extraction head Perseverance drilled a hole with the cover leaving it in the Martian surface! This particular drill bit was installed before launch, to close out the drill and keep the inside protected. To keep my science clean and clear, I’m leaving it aside before I start to collect samples with new, pristine drill bits. View: https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1418673630427287554
 
We’re heading northwest for the 11th flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which will happen no earlier than Wednesday night, Aug. 4. The mission profile is designed to stay ahead of the rover – supporting its future science goals in the “South Séítah” region, where it will be able to gather aerial imagery in support of future Perseverance Mars rover surface operations in the area.
 

Aviation Week Awards NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter With Laureate
Aug 10, 2021

The prestigious honor recognizes the pioneering rotorcraft for its history-making flights on the Red Planet.

The “little helicopter that could” has garnered attention, fans, and numerous accolades, with the latest coming from Aviation Week Network in the form of a 2021 Laureate Award. The Laureate Awards honor “extraordinary achievements in aerospace.”

When the 4-pound (1.8 kilogram) rotorcraft hovered on Mars for 39.1 seconds on April 19, 2021, it was the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet – a true Wright brothers moment. Since then, Ingenuity has chalked up 11 flights, with a total distance of just over 1 mile (2.2 kilometers), reaching an altitude record of 40 feet (12 meters) in its 10th sortie.

Ingenuity hitched a ride to the Red Planet on Perseverance, which landed on Feb. 18 2021. It was designed as a technology demonstration and carries no science payloads on board. Its mission was to prove that humanity can fly powered vehicles on Mars.

After Ingenuity achieved its tech demo goals, the helicopter entered its current operations demonstration phase to test its abilities as an aerial explorer, quickly imaging and scouting areas of Mars. This capability has proven useful to Perseverance operators and scientists. During its most recent flights, Ingenuity has surveyed areas of particular interest for Perseverance to potentially explore in its hunt for signs of ancient life.

“The helicopter has succeeded in ways the Ingenuity team could only have imagined at the outset of this project,” said Ingenuity Operations Lead Teddy Tzanetos. “The small but mighty team behind this small but mighty rotorcraft is, needless to say, thrilled at its success and honored for the acknowledgment. We’re also eager to see what comes next with the operations demonstration.”

The helicopter is paving the way for possible future missions that could use rotorcraft to help scout, explore, and even carry science payloads on other worlds.

The Laureate award will be presented at a ceremony in October in McLean, Virginia. Full list of 2021 Laureate Award winners.
 

Aviation Week Awards NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter With Laureate
Aug 10, 2021

The prestigious honor recognizes the pioneering rotorcraft for its history-making flights on the Red Planet.

The “little helicopter that could” has garnered attention, fans, and numerous accolades, with the latest coming from Aviation Week Network in the form of a 2021 Laureate Award. The Laureate Awards honor “extraordinary achievements in aerospace.”

When the 4-pound (1.8 kilogram) rotorcraft hovered on Mars for 39.1 seconds on April 19, 2021, it was the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet – a true Wright brothers moment. Since then, Ingenuity has chalked up 11 flights, with a total distance of just over 1 mile (2.2 kilometers), reaching an altitude record of 40 feet (12 meters) in its 10th sortie.

Ingenuity hitched a ride to the Red Planet on Perseverance, which landed on Feb. 18 2021. It was designed as a technology demonstration and carries no science payloads on board. Its mission was to prove that humanity can fly powered vehicles on Mars.

After Ingenuity achieved its tech demo goals, the helicopter entered its current operations demonstration phase to test its abilities as an aerial explorer, quickly imaging and scouting areas of Mars. This capability has proven useful to Perseverance operators and scientists. During its most recent flights, Ingenuity has surveyed areas of particular interest for Perseverance to potentially explore in its hunt for signs of ancient life.

“The helicopter has succeeded in ways the Ingenuity team could only have imagined at the outset of this project,” said Ingenuity Operations Lead Teddy Tzanetos. “The small but mighty team behind this small but mighty rotorcraft is, needless to say, thrilled at its success and honored for the acknowledgment. We’re also eager to see what comes next with the operations demonstration.”

The helicopter is paving the way for possible future missions that could use rotorcraft to help scout, explore, and even carry science payloads on other worlds.

The Laureate award will be presented at a ceremony in October in McLean, Virginia. Full list of 2021 Laureate Award winners.

Well done Ingenuity. :cool:
 
Better By the Dozen – Ingenuity Takes on Flight 12

Ingenuity’s team is suiting up again for its next big challenging sortie, Flight 12. Taking place no earlier than Monday, Aug. 16 at 5:57 a.m. PDT, or 13:23 LMST (local Mars time), the 174th sol (Martian day) of the Perseverance mission, the flight will venture into the geologically intriguing “South Séítah” region (top yellow circle in graphic above).

This latest effort will be similar to Flight 10, where we performed some location scouting for the Perseverance team of a surface feature called “Raised Ridges.” But, Flight 12 has the potential to have more impactful results. Thanks to its newly enabled AutoNav capability, Perseverance is quickly moving northwest across the southern ridge of Séítah (white path) and will meet Ingenuity in the coming days. As a result, the timing of Ingenuity’s Flight 12 is critical.

The plan is as follows: Ingenuity will climb to an altitude of 10 meters and fly approximately 235 meters east-northeast toward the area of interest in Séítah. Once there, the helicopter will make a 5-meter “sidestep” in order to get side-by-side images of the surface terrain suitable to construct a stereo, or 3D, image. Then, while keeping the camera in the same direction, Ingenuity will backtrack, returning to the same area from where it took off. Over the course of the flight, Ingenuity will capture 10 color images that we hope will help the Perseverance science team determine which of all the boulders, rocky outcrops and other geologic features in South Séítah may be worthy of further scrutiny by the rover.

This flight will be ambitious. Flying over Séítah South carries substantial risk because of the varied terrain. Ingenuity’s navigation system – which was originally intended to support a short technology demonstration – works on the assumption that it is flying across flat (or nearly flat) terrain. Deviations from this assumption can introduce errors that can lead both to temporary excursions in roll and pitch (tilting back and forth in an oscillating pattern), as well as long-term errors in the helicopter’s knowledge of its position.

When we choose to accept the risks associated with such a flight, it is because of the correspondingly high rewards. Knowing that we have the opportunity to help the Perseverance team with science planning by providing unique aerial footage is all the motivation needed.

We are filling out more pages in our pilot’s logbook (the Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons) than we ever thought possible. So far, 11 pages have been completed with the statistics and observations of our flights. Before our campaign began, we were hoping for at least one, maybe up to three or four successful flights.

A couple of the things we like to keep an eye on in our logbook entries: Ingenuity has logged 19 minutes and approximately 1.2 nautical miles in the Martian skies (so far). We are happy to report all systems are green and that the helicopter is ready for continued flight operations. For Flight 12, we’re not only aiming to add to those totals as we fill in another page of our logbook, but also hopeful that we’ll get to include a mention in the book’s Remarks section about how much this flight helped our colleagues working on Perseverance.

 
Another interesting piece of news about the Perseverance rover mission. The Curiosity Mars rover had managed to collect 32 Martian rock samples by using a drill attached to robotic arm. Pereverance rovere mission still keeps searching for signs of past life on the red planet by analyzing the chemical, mineral, physical and organic characteristics of the rocks.
 

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