Illustration of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Ingenuity team has identified a software solution to the issue of the command sequence identified on Sol 49 (April 9) during a planned rapid test of the helicopter’s rotors. Over the weekend, the team considered and tested several potential solutions to this issue, concluding that minor customization and reinstatement of Ingenuity’s flight control software is the strongest way forward. This software update modifies the process by which the two flight controllers upload so that the hardware and software can safely transition to the flight state. Changes to the flight software are independently reviewed and validated in test beds today and tomorrow to JPL.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter performs a slow winch test of its blades on April 8, 2021, the 48th March day, or sol, of the mission. This image was captured by the navigation cameras on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Developing the new software change is simple, but the process of validating it and completing the uplink to Ingenuity will take some time. A detailed timeline for rescheduling the shortcut test and first flight is still in progress. The process of updating Ingenuity’s flight control software will follow established validation processes with careful and deliberate steps to move the new software through the rover to the base station and then to the helicopter. Intermediate milestones include:
- Diagnose the problem and develop potential solutions
- Develop / validate and upload software
- Download flight software on flight controllers
- Boot Ingenuity on new flight software
Once we reach these milestones, we prepare Ingenuity for its first flight, which will take several solos, or March days. Our best estimate of a targeted flight date is fluent at the moment, but we’re working to reach these milestones and will set a flight date next week. We are confident in the team’s ability to work through this challenge and prepare for Ingenuity’s historic first controlled car flight on another planet.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance Rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th March day, or sol, of the mission. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
On the surface of Mars, ingenuity is still healthy. Critical features such as power, communication and thermal control are stable. It is not unexpected for a technology demonstration like this to take on challenges that they have to deal with in real time. The high-risk reward with a high reward for the first powered, controlled flight on another planet enables us to place the performance envelope in a way we could not do with a mission that could last for years like Perseverance not. Meanwhile, while the Ingenuity team is doing its job, Perseverance will continue to do science with its range of instruments and they are ready for a test of the MOXIE technology demonstration.