Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter first flight on Mars delayed. Here’s what happened

After dropping from Perseverance belly, Ingenuity survived the first night on Mars on its own and successfully tested the blades at a lower speed.

Nasa has rescheduled the first flight attempt of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars to no earlier than April 14 based on data that arrived late Friday night. Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Saturday said that the decision to postpone the flight attempt was taken after an issue was flagged during a high-speed test of the blades. The rotorcraft weighing 1.8 kilograms was earlier expected to take off this weekend and hover 10 feet above the surface for up to 30 seconds.

Nasa JPL said in a statement that the command sequence controlling the full-speed test ended early due to a “watchdog” timer expiration.(Twitter/ Nasa JPL)

Nasa JPL said in a statement that the command sequence controlling the full-speed test ended early due to a “watchdog” timer expiration. The watchdog timer oversees the command sequence and alerts the system about any potential issues. The timer helps Ingenuity stay safe by not proceeding if an issue is encountered.

The watchdog timer expiration occurred when the command sequence was trying to transition the flight computer from ‘Pre-Flight’ to ‘Flight’ mode. Nasa stressed that the Ingenuity helicopter, which had travelled to Mars being attached on the Perseverance rover’s belly, is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth.

“The helicopter team is reviewing telemetry to diagnose and understand the issue. Following that, they will reschedule the full-speed test,” said Nasa.

Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter does a slow spin test of its blades, on April 8, 2021, (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

After dropping from Perseverance belly, Ingenuity survived the first night on its own and successfully tested the blades at a lower speed. It is required to spin up rotor blades at planned flight speed for the first time on Mars while still on the surface. If all issues get resolved, it will lift off for the first time in the thin Martian atmosphere no earlier than April 14.

Ingenuity’s guidance, navigation, and control systems will do the piloting for autonomous flight attempt, mostly because radio signals will take 15 minutes and 27 seconds to bridge the 278-million-kilometre gap between Mars and Earth. The live coverage confirming Ingenuity’s first flight will be available on Nasa’s website, app, and television. It will also be live-streamed on multiple social media platforms of the US space agency, including the JPL YouTube and Facebook channels.