3 ms·

Why would NASA intentionally plan to end the mission? Why not continue flying this thing until it breaks?

jffry 5y ago
I suspect, but don't know for sure, that this is related to funding for staffing in command centers and such. "Fly it until it breaks" means that somebody must approve an uncertain and ongoing expense without any results to show for it. If you re-frame it as an initial experimental mission, it's a smaller and more defined budgetary request. You can outline potential extra-time scenarios, but presumably those are a lot easier to get approval for after the initial window is a success. edit: It also occurs to me that framing it as a series of smaller phases with well-defined goals and benefits also makes it easier to communicate a straightforward message to the broader public about the mission.
chrishas35 5y ago
Helicopter requires rover to be near by as means of communications as helicopter itself can not directly communicate. Thus, it originally had a limited time as the rover needs to move on to other activities.
- guidedlight 5y ago
  I can definitely envisage future rover missions having a helipad, of sorts. It would also allow the helicopter to charge directly from the rover, rather than from a clumsy solar panel.
  - EE84M3i 5y ago
    Couldn't this increase the chance of a collision though?
- phire 5y ago
  But it's a Helicopter. Whenever the rover moves on, the helicopter can move to a new landing spot within range.
  - amelius 5y ago
    How far can it fly on one charge?
    - phire 5y ago
      About 600m per flight. Actually it's flight time is limited by motor heat buildup, not battery capacity. If they want to scout each landing site, that requires doing a round-trip one day to get photos and flying out the next day, which limits it to a maximum range of 300m every two days. The previous rover, Curiosity has driven an average of 8m per day (usually stopping for a few days to to science then driving in bursts of ~30m/day) Ingenuity should be able to keep up.
  - chrishas35 5y ago
    Yes, that is the plan now. It was not the original because…we’ve never flown on another planet before. It was successful so they are changing the parameters after learning more. SCIENCE!
just_for_ing 5y ago
Time; perseverance has had to stay close by; using our most precious resource in space —- time. It is also all about a cost benefit using the team here to plan missions; rather than shift into a new project. Basically what this says is, this little machine can still teach us something. I believe perseverance is now going to move further away; but they have proven more reliable communication links so believe they can stretch the envelope. Don’t learn a lot of this stuff until your on another planet.
justapassenger 5y ago
You set your initial goals low, so you can achieve them, especially if you’re depended on public funding. It’s a great successes story, if they flew and met all their original goals, and then just try to extend it. It’s much different story, if initial plan would be for example for 20 flights, but it’ll break after 15th. Then you have failure, people questioning why we spent so much money on failed mission, etc. Plus, it’s easier to ask for $x billion dollars for the mission, meet all the goals and then ask for few extra $ to support extending already proven and successful mission, then to ask for higher amount from a start.
- ruph123 5y ago
  This. The two MER rovers were supposed to last 90 Marsian days but instead made it to 10+ years.
  - Denvercoder9 5y ago
    At least part of that was dust storms unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels.
rtkwe 5y ago
Planning and funding come in chunks, you get X set of people for Y months/years with access to Z resources to accomplish goals A,B,C,etc. If it's successful you're likely to get more time and some subset of the resources if there's still interesting science to be done (and there usually is, our questions are nearly endless compared to the resources available on the rovers). Doing it on an open ended mission doesn't really match how government funding works.
fastball 5y ago
Because NASA knows valuable it is to under-promise and over-deliver.

I suspect, but don't know for sure, that this is related to funding for staffing in command centers and such. "Fly it until it breaks" means that somebody must approve an uncertain and ongoing expense without any results to show for it. If you re-frame it as an initial experimental mission, it's a smaller and more defined budgetary request. You can outline potential extra-time scenarios, but presumably those are a lot easier to get approval for after the initial window is a success. edit: It also occurs to me that framing it as a series of smaller phases with well-defined goals and benefits also makes it easier to communicate a straightforward message to the broader public about the mission.

chrishas35 5y ago

Helicopter requires rover to be near by as means of communications as helicopter itself can not directly communicate. Thus, it originally had a limited time as the rover needs to move on to other activities.

guidedlight 5y ago
I can definitely envisage future rover missions having a helipad, of sorts. It would also allow the helicopter to charge directly from the rover, rather than from a clumsy solar panel.
- EE84M3i 5y ago
  Couldn't this increase the chance of a collision though?
phire 5y ago
But it's a Helicopter. Whenever the rover moves on, the helicopter can move to a new landing spot within range.
- amelius 5y ago
  How far can it fly on one charge?
  - phire 5y ago
    About 600m per flight. Actually it's flight time is limited by motor heat buildup, not battery capacity. If they want to scout each landing site, that requires doing a round-trip one day to get photos and flying out the next day, which limits it to a maximum range of 300m every two days. The previous rover, Curiosity has driven an average of 8m per day (usually stopping for a few days to to science then driving in bursts of ~30m/day) Ingenuity should be able to keep up.
- chrishas35 5y ago
  Yes, that is the plan now. It was not the original because…we’ve never flown on another planet before. It was successful so they are changing the parameters after learning more. SCIENCE!

just_for_ing 5y ago

Time; perseverance has had to stay close by; using our most precious resource in space —- time. It is also all about a cost benefit using the team here to plan missions; rather than shift into a new project. Basically what this says is, this little machine can still teach us something. I believe perseverance is now going to move further away; but they have proven more reliable communication links so believe they can stretch the envelope. Don’t learn a lot of this stuff until your on another planet.

justapassenger 5y ago

You set your initial goals low, so you can achieve them, especially if you’re depended on public funding. It’s a great successes story, if they flew and met all their original goals, and then just try to extend it. It’s much different story, if initial plan would be for example for 20 flights, but it’ll break after 15th. Then you have failure, people questioning why we spent so much money on failed mission, etc. Plus, it’s easier to ask for $x billion dollars for the mission, meet all the goals and then ask for few extra $ to support extending already proven and successful mission, then to ask for higher amount from a start.

ruph123 5y ago
This. The two MER rovers were supposed to last 90 Marsian days but instead made it to 10+ years.
- Denvercoder9 5y ago
  At least part of that was dust storms unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels.

rtkwe 5y ago

Planning and funding come in chunks, you get X set of people for Y months/years with access to Z resources to accomplish goals A,B,C,etc. If it's successful you're likely to get more time and some subset of the resources if there's still interesting science to be done (and there usually is, our questions are nearly endless compared to the resources available on the rovers). Doing it on an open ended mission doesn't really match how government funding works.

fastball 5y ago

Because NASA knows valuable it is to under-promise and over-deliver.