Ingenuity, NASA's Mars helicopter, did not take off as planned earlier this month.
On Sept. 18, Ingenuity was slated to fly its 14th Red Planet sortie, a relatively short and straightforward flight that would have proved the little chopper's ability to fly at slightly higher rotor speeds - 2,700 RPM rather than the customary 2,537 RPM.
The mission team is making this change to deal with the Martian atmosphere, which is thinning slightly as the seasons change on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater, according to Jaakko Karras, Ingenuity deputy operations lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, in an update Tuesday (Sept. 28).
"It turned out to be an uneventful flight because Ingenuity decided to not take off," Karras wrote.
It was a good thing that Ingenuity didn't fly. During a regular preflight check of the chopper's systems, the chopper discovered an anomaly in two flight-control servo motors.
"Here's what happened: Ingenuity detected an anomaly in two of the small flight-control servo motors (or simply 'servos') during its automatic pre-flight checkout and did exactly what it was supposed to do: It canceled the flight," Karras explained.
Due to the flight cancellation, Ingenuity will not attempt to take off again until after mid-October. Mars solar conjunction, a period when Earth and Mars are opposite each other with the sun in between, is the cause of the long delay. This could generate communication issues between Earth and robotic explorers on Mars and in its vicinity.
Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 16, NASA will take a break from sending commands.
Ingenuity is having a difficult time on Mars as the seasons change, and it needs to make significant adjustments in its flight pattern due to a decrease in air density. The rotorcraft passed a high-speed spin test to check if it could compensate for the alterations, and it passed with flying colors. The following stage was to attempt a hover, which is when the anomaly happened.
Karras said that a variety of solutions are available for resolving the issue, and that the team is hopeful that Ingenuity will be able to fly again soon.
