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The test was the long-awaited first flight of a $ 80 million mini helicopter Was taken to Mars by a rover of diligence NASA announced Monday that engineers have been suspended from testing the software to fix an issue that occurred Friday during a pre-flight test.
If all goes well, the team hopes to determine a new flight date next week.
Engineers initially expect the ingenious helicopter to launch Sunday on a plane above and below 30 seconds to test the 4-pound drone, which, in fact, could be automatically launched and circled in the ultra-thin atmosphere of Mars.
But during a test on Friday, the ingenious aircraft computer did not switch from one mode to another, as the copter’s 4-foot-long counter-rotating blades rotated. Close the test, as scheduled, in the board security software.
NASA / JBL-Caltech
JBL announced on Saturday that the ingenuity was not damaged and that the full-scale telemetry had been reduced as ordered. A short-term update, the test flight, will be delayed until the first, at least Wednesday, so engineers can review the data to determine what went wrong and what is needed to fix it.
On Monday, JBL updated Helicopter level page Says a software update is pending.
“The software solution to the command line problem identified during the scheduled high-speed spin-up test (April 9) of the helicopter’s rotor has been cleverly identified,” the report said.
“This software update will change the boot process of the two flight controllers, allowing the hardware and software to be safely transferred to the airline. Changes to the flight software are independently reviewed and verified.”
Although the software bug was “straightforward”, the update said, “The process of checking it out and completing its link for ingenuity will take some time.”
If all goes well, the engineers will set a new date for the first flight of the helicopter next week.
“We are confident in the team’s ability to operate through this challenge and are preparing for the first controlled controlled flight of ingenuity on another planet,” the update said. Meanwhile, “intelligence on the surface of Mars remains consistently healthy. Important functions such as power, communication and thermal control are stable.”
The ingenuity behind a protective trash shield was carried to Mars 4 2.4 billion diligent rover. Seven months after its launch from Cape Canaveral on July 30, it embarked on an ambitious mission on February 18 to embark on an ambitious mission to search for signs of past microbial activity in ancient lake sediments.
Ingenuity made a ride as a technical demonstration experiment. It has no scientific instruments and is not part of Rover’s primary mission. The drone was added only to test the feasibility of the aircraft in thin Martian atmosphere.
If successful, more advanced helicopters could be sent to Mars for future missions to take the rovers to inaccessible areas or eventually to astronauts with scientific equipment.
