4 ms·

Reconstructed path of Ingenuity flight 9 via photogrammetry

96 points by _Microft 5y ago

dylan604 5y ago
These videos are just over 90 seconds long, and according to the info posted are at 2x speed. That gives the flight time of 3mins. I thought the flight time was only able to be 90 seconds. Did I miss something where they are getting double the expected flight times?
- orbital-decay 5y ago
  > I thought the flight time was only able to be 90 seconds That was just the initial guess before the mission, considering the power budget available for powering the rotor. After completing the planned objectives, NASA attempted longer flights; the last two were about 2 min 45 sec.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Is this a case of contractor over-engineering, NASA downplaying the abilities, both, neither? I don't mean any of that derogatorily. I know you'd rather announce the low numbers and look like champs when you get better than anounce high numbers and look like chumps when you get lower. It seems to be a bit of pride on NASA contractors building things that far exceed minimum mission requirements. I'd hate to be the contractor that gave NASA something that worked exactly as proposed, and then stopped working immediately. While it would be "successful", you'd hate to then be compared to Curiosity
    - orbital-decay 5y ago
      The power budget had conservative safety margins because of the uncertainties. At this point, the uncertainties are gone, and they accomplished every objective of this tech demo. So they are just stress testing it, pushing it over the safety limits. The last landings were really tight, and the helicopter barely made it. Ingenuity is not a scientific instrument - it's a one-time proof of concept that got accepted into the mission at the last moment. It's essentially disposable now.
      - dylan604 5y ago
        I get what you/they mean by it's not a scientific instrument, but yet it is at the same time. Like you said, they are pushing things, learning, gaining knowledge, etc. That's pretty much the job of scientific instruments. It's just that's it's all bonus learning.
amelius 5y ago
Pretty rough landing, if you ask me.
- snug 5y ago
  2x speed, prob not as bad in real time
- _Microft 5y ago
  Ingenuity disables its optical height detection system a short distance over ground because kicked up dust could interfere with it. It proceeds downwards until it makes contact with ground. To reliably detect the acceleration of that, they have to "slam it" into ground at a speed of approximately 1 m/s. Edit: here is my old comment on this and the submitted article from which the information was taken: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27009678 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27009678
- Cogito 5y ago
  The author addresses that in a comment [0] This part might not be entirely accurate due to a lack of image data around takeoff and landing. I had to make my best guess from reference video taken by the Perseverance rover on a previous flight. That landing was a little rough and showed some bounce, so I recreated that. [0] https://twitter.com/stim3on/status/1420176001347297280 https://twitter.com/stim3on/status/1420176001347297280
echelon 5y ago
How long can the science mission of Ingenuity continue? When do the batteries/fuel die? Or will it accumulate too much damage to fly before that point? How far can it stray from the rover? Will it be able to aid in the search for life? Resources?
- zokier 5y ago
  It's solar powered so it potentially could continue for a while, until its solar panels get too dusty. It doesn't have any instruments to look for signs of life (or really, anything else), so its mostly limited to scouting.
dougmwne 5y ago
One of the coolest things in VR is this reconstruction of Mars from Curiosity, the previous rover's stereo mast cam. It is the closest I will ever come to standing on the surface of another planet and is completely awe inspiring. https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/ https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/ I'm hoping that the images from Ingenuity and Perseverance can be used to create an updated version of this experience in a few years.

96 points by _Microft 5y ago

These videos are just over 90 seconds long, and according to the info posted are at 2x speed. That gives the flight time of 3mins. I thought the flight time was only able to be 90 seconds. Did I miss something where they are getting double the expected flight times?

orbital-decay 5y ago
> I thought the flight time was only able to be 90 seconds That was just the initial guess before the mission, considering the power budget available for powering the rotor. After completing the planned objectives, NASA attempted longer flights; the last two were about 2 min 45 sec.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Is this a case of contractor over-engineering, NASA downplaying the abilities, both, neither? I don't mean any of that derogatorily. I know you'd rather announce the low numbers and look like champs when you get better than anounce high numbers and look like chumps when you get lower. It seems to be a bit of pride on NASA contractors building things that far exceed minimum mission requirements. I'd hate to be the contractor that gave NASA something that worked exactly as proposed, and then stopped working immediately. While it would be "successful", you'd hate to then be compared to Curiosity
  - orbital-decay 5y ago
    The power budget had conservative safety margins because of the uncertainties. At this point, the uncertainties are gone, and they accomplished every objective of this tech demo. So they are just stress testing it, pushing it over the safety limits. The last landings were really tight, and the helicopter barely made it. Ingenuity is not a scientific instrument - it's a one-time proof of concept that got accepted into the mission at the last moment. It's essentially disposable now.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      I get what you/they mean by it's not a scientific instrument, but yet it is at the same time. Like you said, they are pushing things, learning, gaining knowledge, etc. That's pretty much the job of scientific instruments. It's just that's it's all bonus learning.

amelius 5y ago

Pretty rough landing, if you ask me.

snug 5y ago
2x speed, prob not as bad in real time
_Microft 5y ago
Ingenuity disables its optical height detection system a short distance over ground because kicked up dust could interfere with it. It proceeds downwards until it makes contact with ground. To reliably detect the acceleration of that, they have to "slam it" into ground at a speed of approximately 1 m/s. Edit: here is my old comment on this and the submitted article from which the information was taken: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27009678 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27009678
Cogito 5y ago
The author addresses that in a comment [0] This part might not be entirely accurate due to a lack of image data around takeoff and landing. I had to make my best guess from reference video taken by the Perseverance rover on a previous flight. That landing was a little rough and showed some bounce, so I recreated that. [0] https://twitter.com/stim3on/status/1420176001347297280 https://twitter.com/stim3on/status/1420176001347297280

echelon 5y ago

How long can the science mission of Ingenuity continue? When do the batteries/fuel die? Or will it accumulate too much damage to fly before that point? How far can it stray from the rover? Will it be able to aid in the search for life? Resources?

zokier 5y ago
It's solar powered so it potentially could continue for a while, until its solar panels get too dusty. It doesn't have any instruments to look for signs of life (or really, anything else), so its mostly limited to scouting.

dougmwne 5y ago

One of the coolest things in VR is this reconstruction of Mars from Curiosity, the previous rover's stereo mast cam. It is the closest I will ever come to standing on the surface of another planet and is completely awe inspiring. https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/ https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/ I'm hoping that the images from Ingenuity and Perseverance can be used to create an updated version of this experience in a few years.