NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will take its first experimental flight no earlier than Wednesday. Following an aborted high-speed rotor spin test on Friday, NASA decided to reschedule the chopper’s initial takeoff.
“The command sequence controlling the test ended early due to a ‘watchdog’ timer expiration,” according to a NASA blog announcement. ‘This occurred as it was trying to transition the flight computer from ‘Pre-Flight’ to ‘Flight’ mode.”
Much like a human regulator, Ingenuity’s watchdog timer helps keep the aircraft safe, alerting its system to any potential issues, and pausing the process if any problems are observed. “The helicopter is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth,” chief project engineer Bob Balaram confirmed over the weekend. “The helicopter team is reviewing telemetry to diagnose and understand the issue.”
Ingenuity is expected to lift off as many as five times over 30 Martian sols (31 Earth days). Each 90-second flight could reach altitudes of 10 to 16 feet and travel as far as 160 feet. That’s easier said than done, though. Thanks to a less-than-ideal Martian atmosphere—which receives about half the amount of solar energy as Earth during the day, and can reach temperatures as low as -130℉ at night—Ingenuity needed to be small and lightweight, but still carry enough energy to power internal heaters.
The space agency has not yet revealed a date for the whirlybird’s first ascent; a full-speed test will be rescheduled once the team identifies and fixes the problem. Folks can watch a livestream of the event on NASA’s website or YouTube, and ask questions via social media with #MarsHelicopter. Without any science instruments onboard or goals to obtain specific information, Ingenuity’s only goal is to fly.
