Perseverance turns to Helicopter Ingenuity after its first autonomous night on Mars

Well, my Brothers and Sisters, NASA's Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has made it through its first night in the open, uncoupled from its parent, the Perseverance rover... This video depicts the various photo captures of Ingenuity as well as the sweep of the plain around the Helo... According to NASA, we are now only about 6-days from Ingenuity's 1st flight attempt, as April 11th is the earliest date.

Here is what NASA has to say:

On April 4, 2021 NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover sent images of Helicopter Ingenuity after its first autonomous night on Mars. Helicopter was successfully dropped to planet’s surface by Perseverance Rover on April 3. Ingenuity is ready to make first flight at Helipad but something caused the rover to turn to Helicopter. As we know Ingenuity can't afford to keep the temperature of its interior at a "balmy" 45F -that takes too much precious energy from the battery. Instead, when it wakes up on the surface after being dropped, it sets its thermostat to about 5F or lower. Then it's off to survive the first night on its own! The team is going to check the temperatures and the battery recharge performance over the next couple of days. If it all looks good, then it's onto the next steps: unlocking the rotor blades, and testing out all the motors and sensors. MOST REASONABLE answer for the question why Perseverance turned to Helicopter for different angle – to check the temperature of Ingenuity’s solar panels and other components.

Credit: nasa.gov, NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Enjoy!
Kerry
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