[X] My Assistant

[Art Martin]

I'm putting this in the Early Drives category because I believe that one of the primary purposes of these first drives is to find a spot for the helicopter.

Is anyone else wondering like I am just what the terrain needs to look like to set the helicopter down? It sure looks to me that the areas we're in right now are largely free of obstacles for flying and landing with no large rocks. Unless you go for some completely sand covered spot I'm not sure you're going to find any areas any more pristine. Does anybody have any info about what type of zone they are exactly looking for? Since the helicopter is not really designed to be used for investigation of terrain but more as just a proof of concept of flight, I would imagine the choice of area would be wide open and flat.

Here's what I've got so far about upcoming events.

1. The helicopter below the rover limits ground clearance so it is vital that the helicopter phase be early in the drives so the rover is not limited in mobility.

2. The main purpose of the helicopter is proof of concept of Mars flight so the emphasis is not using it for exploration/route planning/research photography but merely that we can sustain flight - take off, fly autonomously, and land safely.

3. Once deposited on the surface, it will take a number of days of check outs prior to the first real flight.

Should we create a new topic that is discussion about the helicopter?

[Art Martin]

I had no idea about the cover for the sample extraction system so I was obviously premature with thinking the cover for Ingenuity would be the next thing removed. Thrilled with the underbelly panoramas and animations of that drop. My question to anyone more familiar with the operations is will the rover now move away from that dropped cover before ejecting Ingenuity's cover or can they both be dropped in the same place. I would think that they'd be concerned Ingenuity's cover might roll over the other one and limit ground clearance. If so, I imagine the next step after full checkouts and photos of the sample retrieval system would be a short drive to be clear of the first cover drop to set up the next.

[mcaplinger]

My question to anyone more familiar with the operations is will the rover now move away from that dropped cover before ejecting Ingenuity's cover or can they both be dropped in the same place.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/ma...ion/spacecraft/

The debris shield will remain in place until just days before Ingenuity is deployed to the surface... About 60 days after landing, the delivery system will deploy the helicopter...

I'm not sure if the timetable in the press kit still holds, but this suggests that the heli debris shield drop won't happen soon, considering that https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/body/ said

Note that for new Sampling and Caching interior workspace, the belly pan in that front end of the rover is dropped soon after the rover lands.