Mars Ingenuity helicopter and Perseverance are talking again
(2022/05/09)
- Reference: 1652128685
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/09/mars_helicopter_battery/
- Source link:
The long-lived Ingenuity helicopter has made contact with NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars after an unexpected communications blackout.
Ingenuity just passed the milestone of a year of operations on the Red Planet, after being designed for five experimental test flights over 30 Martian days during 2021. Thus far, the helicopter has managed to fly more than 4.2 miles in 28 sorties, proving NASA's reputation for [1]over-engineering its space kit.
Ingenuity uses Perseverance as a base station to send data to and receive commands from Earth. Well, up until May 3, when communications between rover and helicopter dropped out. The problem? Dust, it turns out, which was stopping the helicopter from charging properly from its solar panels.
[2]
In the hope of hearing a call from the helicopter, engineers commanded the rover to spend much of May 5 listening for a signal. Thankfully, one was [3]received at 1145 local Mars time. While the data was limited in order to preserve battery power, there was enough to indicate the helicopter was OK and its power source was being charged.
[4]
[5]
Perseverance rover runs on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), however, Ingenuity uses batteries charged by a solar array. A seasonal increase of dust in the Martian atmosphere means there is less sunlight hitting the array, meaning less charging and available power, and the temperature is dropping as winter approaches, which means more battery-sucking heating to keep the electronics operational.
Although more telemetry is required, engineers reckon, given these circumstances, Ingenuity's power levels dropped below a lower limit resulting in the shutdown of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) that manages the helicopter's electronics. As well as controlling the heaters and turning bits of the helicopter's avionics on and off, the FPGA also maintains time and controls when Ingenuity wakes up for a communications session with Perseverance.
[6]
When the solar array began to recharge the batteries, the FPGA came back up. However, its clock was reset, and so when Ingenuity tried to communicate, Perseverance was not listening.
[7]Software upgrades help Mars helicopter keep flying
[8]Mars helicopter mission (which Apache says is powered byLog4j) overcomes separate network glitch to confirm new flight record
[9]It's fake ooze, don't fall for fake ooze: Alien fossils found on Mars might just be simple chemistry, uni pair warn
[10]NASA halts Mars comms for two weeks as Sun gets in way of Red Planet
Communications issue aside, it is the heaters that will cause engineers the greatest headache. The heaters keep the temperature of critical components onboard the helicopter from dropping too low during the Martian night and use battery power to do so. However, there may be some leeway – in order to accumulate as much of a battery charge as possible, the team has uplinked commands to lower the point at which the heaters kick in. The previous position was 5°F (-15°C) and the latest one is -40°F (-40°C).
A few nights of this should result in enough charge for normal operations to resume, if one assumes the mostly commercial off-the-shelf components from which Ingenuity is constructed can survive.
Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said: "Our top priority is to maintain communications with Ingenuity in the next few sols, but even then, we know that there will be significant challenges ahead."
Challenges there may be. The helicopter is, after all, over a year into a month-long mission and the technology demonstrator has surpassed all reasonable expectations for its performance. Its [11]most recent flight resulted in Ingenuity travelling approximately 1,371 feet horizontally at a maximum altitude of around 33 feet.
[12]
We would not bet against the boffins extracting just a bit more science from the little gizmo just yet. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/13/nasa_opportunity_rip/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/379/nasas-ingenuity-in-contact-with-perseverance-rover-after-communications-dropout/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/16/mars_helicopter_mission_extended/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/16/ingenuity_mars_helicopter_log4j_network/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/martian_fossil_mistakes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/29/nasa_mars_conjunction/
[11] https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Flight-Log
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Ingenuity just passed the milestone of a year of operations on the Red Planet, after being designed for five experimental test flights over 30 Martian days during 2021. Thus far, the helicopter has managed to fly more than 4.2 miles in 28 sorties, proving NASA's reputation for [1]over-engineering its space kit.
Ingenuity uses Perseverance as a base station to send data to and receive commands from Earth. Well, up until May 3, when communications between rover and helicopter dropped out. The problem? Dust, it turns out, which was stopping the helicopter from charging properly from its solar panels.
[2]
In the hope of hearing a call from the helicopter, engineers commanded the rover to spend much of May 5 listening for a signal. Thankfully, one was [3]received at 1145 local Mars time. While the data was limited in order to preserve battery power, there was enough to indicate the helicopter was OK and its power source was being charged.
[4]
[5]
Perseverance rover runs on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), however, Ingenuity uses batteries charged by a solar array. A seasonal increase of dust in the Martian atmosphere means there is less sunlight hitting the array, meaning less charging and available power, and the temperature is dropping as winter approaches, which means more battery-sucking heating to keep the electronics operational.
Although more telemetry is required, engineers reckon, given these circumstances, Ingenuity's power levels dropped below a lower limit resulting in the shutdown of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) that manages the helicopter's electronics. As well as controlling the heaters and turning bits of the helicopter's avionics on and off, the FPGA also maintains time and controls when Ingenuity wakes up for a communications session with Perseverance.
[6]
When the solar array began to recharge the batteries, the FPGA came back up. However, its clock was reset, and so when Ingenuity tried to communicate, Perseverance was not listening.
[7]Software upgrades help Mars helicopter keep flying
[8]Mars helicopter mission (which Apache says is powered byLog4j) overcomes separate network glitch to confirm new flight record
[9]It's fake ooze, don't fall for fake ooze: Alien fossils found on Mars might just be simple chemistry, uni pair warn
[10]NASA halts Mars comms for two weeks as Sun gets in way of Red Planet
Communications issue aside, it is the heaters that will cause engineers the greatest headache. The heaters keep the temperature of critical components onboard the helicopter from dropping too low during the Martian night and use battery power to do so. However, there may be some leeway – in order to accumulate as much of a battery charge as possible, the team has uplinked commands to lower the point at which the heaters kick in. The previous position was 5°F (-15°C) and the latest one is -40°F (-40°C).
A few nights of this should result in enough charge for normal operations to resume, if one assumes the mostly commercial off-the-shelf components from which Ingenuity is constructed can survive.
Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said: "Our top priority is to maintain communications with Ingenuity in the next few sols, but even then, we know that there will be significant challenges ahead."
Challenges there may be. The helicopter is, after all, over a year into a month-long mission and the technology demonstrator has surpassed all reasonable expectations for its performance. Its [11]most recent flight resulted in Ingenuity travelling approximately 1,371 feet horizontally at a maximum altitude of around 33 feet.
[12]
We would not bet against the boffins extracting just a bit more science from the little gizmo just yet. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/13/nasa_opportunity_rip/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/379/nasas-ingenuity-in-contact-with-perseverance-rover-after-communications-dropout/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/16/mars_helicopter_mission_extended/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/16/ingenuity_mars_helicopter_log4j_network/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/martian_fossil_mistakes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/29/nasa_mars_conjunction/
[11] https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Flight-Log
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YnmPCi@YpTsgAKY6YJ48gQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: TFTFY :-)
John Brown (no body)
It was almost certainly in metric units originally, but NASA is worried about alienating the congress, senate and voters, so translates back from "foreign" to red, white and true blue American Units for the press releases :-)
Re: TFTFY :-)
Boris the Cockroach
Dont you mean 'Imperial' measurements?
You know the measurements us british overlords forced you to use.....
Re: TFTFY :-)
HildyJ
Its most recent flight resulted in Ingenuity travelling approximately 1,371 feet 421.8m 210.2 Osmans horizontally at a maximum altitude of around 33 feet 10.2m 5 Osmans .
If we must maintain standards, let us conform to ElReg ® standards.
In all seriousness, another case of beer for the boffins. But despite their ingenuity, I doubt that Ingenuity is long for that world. Winter is coming.
Well done
Mayday
Once again showing how it’s done.
Keep up the good work, Mars nuclear tanks and solar flying robots.
Next time,
John Brown (no body)
...put the solar cells below the big whirly fan. As a tech demonstrator it's a huge success. The production model will need some tweaking :-)
TFTFY :-)
Its most recent flight resulted in Ingenuity travelling approximately 1,371 feet 421.8m horizontally at a maximum altitude of around 33 feet 10.2m.
We don't want to encourage the brexiters. Way to go, tech team! Do you think it will fly? Maybe. Bloddy hell, it's been up a year! Have a beer (0.5l obviously). :-)