NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has already exceeded expectations by taking more flights than it was supposed to in the Martian environment. The chopper had been scheduled for a brief hovering exercise on September 18. “It turned out to be an uneventful flight because Ingenuity decided to not take off,” said Jaakko Karras, deputy operations lead, in a status update this week.
The failure of the helicopter was a good thing, as it detected an anomaly in two flight-control servo motors when it ran a routine preflight check of its systems. The flight cancellation means the chopper won’t try to fly until sometime mid-October.
Mars solar conjunction to halt operations
The reason for the delay is Mars solar conjunction when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides with the Sun in between. This positioning might cause disrupted communications, so the space agency has decided to halt the operations between October 2 and October 16.
Ingenuity is coming across a challenging time on the Red Planet as the seasons change, and it will be required to make some adjustments in how it flies, all due to a decrease in atmospheric density. The chopper has successfully completed a high-speed spin test to check if it can compensate for the changes, and the test went well. The next step was to try a hover, which is when the anomaly occurred.
The Ingenuity team is trying to troubleshoot the problem. Karras suggested that moving parts might be showing signs of some wear since the rotorcraft has flown more times than it was originally intended, but there could be other explanations for the anomaly.
Coping up with challenging conditions on Mars
The chopper has overcome a technical issue and excelled in its mission in the challenging conditions on the Red Planet. “We have a number of tools available for working through the anomaly and we’re optimistic that we’ll get past it and back to flying again soon,” said Karras.
Besides, due to Mars solar conjunction, NASA will also cut communications with its rovers and other robotic explorers on Mars. The space agency’s signal beamed at Perseverance, Ingenuity, Curiosity, InSight lander, and three Mars orbiters could knock the explorers out of action.
