![]() ![]() That path can be obstructed by the ground itself if the helicopter lands in a depression or on the other side of a hill, or it can be obstructed by elements of the rover’s structure if the helicopter happens to be on the rover’s port (left) or stern (back) side. Download image ›A radio’s signal strength depends significantly on how clear the path, or line-of-sight (LOS), is between the transmitter and receiver antennas. The red line depicts how the rear of the rover presented an obstacle to communications during the final moments of Flight 17. The green dot on the rover indicates the location of its Mars Helicopter Base Station antenna, which communicates with the rotorcraft. Orientation of Mars Helicopter Base Station Antenna for Flight 17: This annotated graphic depicts the orientation of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover during the 17th flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Dec. Examining how radio links behave in relation to nearby surface features can help explain why the loss of link occurred near landing. The telemetry cut out during the final third of our descent, roughly 10 feet (3 meters) off the surface. However, before planning our next flight, we need transfer the missing data from Flight 17 from helicopter to rover, and then to Earth, so we can confirm vehicle health.īased on the telemetry we have, the vehicle performed nominally across the board during its 117-second flight 33 feet (10 meters) above the surface of Mars. Approximately 15 minutes later, Perseverance received several packets of additional Ingenuity telemetry indicating that the flight electronics and battery were healthy.Īll available telemetry during and after the flight suggests that the activity was a success and that the loss of link was due to a challenging radio configuration between Perseverance and Ingenuity during landing. After the helicopter executed the planned 614-foot (187-meter) traverse to the northeast, the radio communications link between Ingenuity and the Perseverance Mars rover was disrupted during the final descent phase of the flight. Ingenuity flew for the 17 th time at Mars on Sunday, Dec. The next opportunity for a data transfer is expected to occur sometime within the next several days. ![]() However, the same line-of-sight issues the team believes impeded communications at the end of Flight 17 still prevented the majority of data packets (including imagery from the flight) to be relayed back to the rover – and then to Earth. The limited data that was received indicates power aboard the rotorcraft is excellent, which suggests it is in an upright stance, allowing its solar array to efficiently power its six lithium-ion batteries. On Wednesday (Sol 285 in Perseverance’s mission on Mars) the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter relayed additional information on its status. With the helicopter’s flight success and health verified, the team has begun planning Flight 18, which is expected to take place sometime later this week. During the two data transfer activities on Sols 285 (Wed.) and 287 (Fri.), the mission team maintained continual contact with the vehicle in its low-data-rate radio mode. On Friday (Sol 287 of Perseverance’s mission on Mars), engineers with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter mission received enough additional data from the rotorcraft to confirm that the helicopter landed successfully at the completion of its 17th flight, on Dec. Effectively, Ingenuity “flew behind a hill” or out of the rover's line of sight, briefly interrupting high-speed communications between the two spacecraft. The interruption in data communications between the Ingenuity helicopter and the base station on the Perseverance rover during Flight 17 occurred when the signal was blocked by elevated terrain between the two as Ingenuity descended at the end of the flight. ![]() NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter does not run Apache or log4j nor is it susceptible to the log4j vulnerability. NASA takes cybersecurity very seriously and, for this reason, we do not discuss specifics regarding the cybersecurity of agency assets. ![]()
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