New Delhi:
On its sixth test flight on Mars, a NASA helicopter suffered a navigation timing error that sent it into a wild tailspin more than the Martian surface. It was the initial dilemma the experimental helicopter, named Ingenuity, encountered given that its historic initial flight more than the surface last month, NASA stated. Its Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) shared a GIF of the incident, which showed the helicopter wildly lurching in the air towards the finish of its flight but the space agency stated that it managed to land safely and was prepared for its next flight. “Just keep flying,” NasaJPL captioned the tweet.
The space agency stated that Ingenuity suffered an image processing concern at an altitude of 10 meters but “muscled through” the final 65 metres of its 215-metre journey and landed safely on Saturday.
Just retain flying ????#MarsHelicopter completed its 6th flight. Despite unexpected motion from an image processing concern, Ingenuity muscled via the final ~65 meters of its 215-meter journey, landed safely & is prepared to fly once more. The chief pilot explains https://t.co/533hn7qixkpic.twitter.com/IHkkjXaHDd
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 27, 2021
Before landing, nonetheless, Ingenuity started adjusting its velocity and tilting back and forth in an oscillating pattern, which persisted all through the rest of the flight. This glitch triggered the aircraft to confuse its landing place but it landed inside 5 metres of the intended arrival place, stated Havard Grip, the chief pilot of the helicopter.
NASA stated it is searching into the information and attempting to address the concern. Ingenuity was sent to Mars aboard the Perseverance Rover, which reached the Red Planet in February this year. The rover landed in a area referred to as Jezero Crater and moved about 20 metres away from the web page. It then lowered Ingenuity to the ground and also took a selfie of the two of them on Mars.
“Wow!”
The @NASAJPL group is all cheers as they obtain video information from the @NASAPersevere rover of the Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter flight: pic.twitter.com/8eH4H6jGKs
— NASA (@NASA) April 19, 2021
Scientists had constructed the helicopter pretty light, with a mass of just 1.8kg to make it conform to the much less gravitational pull on Mars. Ingenuity has two on-board cameras — a black-and-white camera pointing down to the ground and a higher-resolution colour camera. The image that NASA tweeted on Friday appeared to have been captured by the initial camera.