Ingenuity- Mars 2020 Helicopter, Deployment & Operations Options

[Bill Harris]

Stereo Photo Maker is a good tool to work with anaglyphs. I've always been able to view stereo pairs with my bare eyes, so I've never been that keen on anaglyphs. Well, I've developed a cataract in one eye and can't do stereos til I get it fixed.

--Bill

[tau]

Thanks to nprev for interrupting the unpleasant argumentation in the other thread.
In the meantime, I've prepared a replay on a post by mcaplinger that may be of general interest.

The color balance of this COTS camera has been quite unpredictable if you go back and look at all of the images. Having said that, are these rocks "bluish" by some metric, sure, wouldn't surprise me. . . .

Here is an overview of all helicopter raw color photos so far.
The white balance was sometimes changed for unknown reasons. I checked all raw images from sol 193 (here is a link to one of them).
Apparently, the images on sol 193 were processed in-camera with an automatic white balance that completely removed any color cast.
This can be verified by averaging the values of R, G, and B in each image. They are identical R=G=B within a rounding error of 1.
This means that the average of all colors in an image is a neutral gray. Because of the predominant orange tone in the Martian landscape,
this auto white balance results in some bluish features (sky, some rocks) in the raw images.

[Bill Harris]

Tau, my suspicion (and I have no proof) is that a color balance change was applied as the images were archived. Unless a bit gets flipped in the on-camera setup, that color balance setting is not likely to change. I would even doubt that there is a way to change it on the aircraft. Tweaking an image "in post" is the likely explanation.
Remember, this is a simple, but high quality, color camera placed on a technology demonstration aircraft.

--Bill

[mcaplinger]

Tau, my suspicion (and I have no proof) is that a color balance change was applied as the images were archived.

I don't think this is the case, I think that the white balance behavior changes unpredictably as a function of what's in the scene and possibly due to some adaptive algorithm inside the camera.

[fredk]

I don't think this is the case

That sounds right. If you compare these two sol 64 frames from the main "raw" image server they have very different colour balance, even though they share some of the same ground features:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/p...3_000085J02.png
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/p...0_000085J02.png
The corresponding RAD calibrated images on the PDS look more similar to each other, but still quite different:
https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mars2...3_000085J04.png
https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mars2...0_000085J04.png
So the different colour balance has only been partially corrected in the calibration. That suggests the different balances are in the original (downlinked) images, rather than in post-processing.

[PaulH51]

Helicopter Status Update:

2,800 RPM Spin a Success, but Flight 14 Delayed to Post Conjunction
News Release

...The test flight was scheduled to take place on Sept. 18, 2021 (Sol 206) and was supposed to be a brief hover flight at 16 feet (5 meters) altitude with a 2,700 rpm rotor speed. It turned out to be an uneventful flight, because Ingenuity decided to not take off. 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 cancelled the flight....

[Tom Tamlyn]

1. Sounds like they aren't testing the higher speed on Earth before Mars. (I wonder if this is due to not having engineering budget at this phase, or other issues)
* * *

I’ve been mulling over this comment by Brian.

I suppose it makes sense that JPL hasn’t provided extra budget to the Ingenuity team for the same kind of ongoing precautionary earth testing that is routine for rover operations. Funding the extended mission at all might have been a scramble. Furthermore: the project is a limited-scope technology demonstration that has already accomplished much more than expected; helicopter failure won’t jeopardize any part of the rest of the mission; Ingenuity’s own telemetry likely provides sufficient guidance for cautious experimentation; and diminishing returns may be setting in.

But one countervailing consideration has just occurred to me, namely that engaging in earth testing in parallel with the ongoing flights could be an opportunity to validate and improve the way JPL simulates Martian conditions for testing aircraft. I don’t know enough to assess whether it would in fact be useful for this purpose, and I suppose that if this were a compelling reason for ongoing earth testing, JPL would be doing it.

I do hope that a member of the engineering team writes a book about the project.

[Tom Tamlyn]

Meanwhile, Ingenuity conducted a successful test of spinning at 2,800 RPM, but a subsequent attempt at a short test flight at 2,700 RPM was aborted after its telemetry detected an anomaly in servo motors.

2,800 RPM Spin a Success, but Flight 14 Delayed to Post Conjunction https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter...st-conjunction/

[Bill Harris]

Servos are wonderful feedback mmechanisms that accurately position themselves. Jitter is not unheard of.
Human pilots with R/C do a servo wiggle with their transmitter sticks before flight; Ginny is using good practice cancelling the flight.

--Bill

[djf]

Just noticed this:

Ingenuity Mission Update - Teddy Tzanetos - 2021 Mars Society Virtual Convention

[centsworth_II]

Flight 14

[Phil Stooke]

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter...return-journey/

Next flight could be as early as tomorrow, and it will begin the return to the landing area and beyond.

Phil

[PDP8E]

SOL 241 -- the last 30 images performing touchdown
Landing leg in top right
GIF

[Tom Tamlyn]

Although I haven’t yet found an official or team announcement, Ingenuity’s Flight 15 apparently did take place on Saturday November 6.

Phil put the flight path in his latest mapping update, http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=255038, and now “frames by rado” has put together a stylish video that tracks the path on previous Perseverance and MRO images, along with a few b&w & color images taken during the flight itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQB2hMo4-EM

At about 1:05 in this video, there’s an attractive color image of Ginny with a somewhat dusty solar panel that’s new to me.

[Phil Stooke]

That image is from sol 47, just after deployment.

Phil