I reprocessed the Sol 1110 Ingenuity image with AI-upscaling to improve visual fidelity.
As @65dBnoise already noted, there seems to be disturbed sand on the other side of the sand ripple. We are still hoping for SuperCam images of the area to get a better understanding of what happened. https://mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/112219066878951407
@stim3on
Great details!
Here is a partially white balanced and contrast enhanced copy, helping bring out more details to facilitate my forensics analysis (thread+imgs):
It appears #Ingenuity bounced twice before stopping.
Details:
• Bounce 1: The fact that the eastern (right) marks, i.e. those up on the ripple, appear to be deeper probably means that the heli was not landing vertically, but its velocity had a horizontal W→E component. After hitting the ground hard, half a rotor broke off
and went flying SW. Maybe another fragment of a blade went flying SSE.
• Bounce 2: The heli must have bounced high enough →SE to clear the crest of the regolith ripple without dragging on it, since there is no disturbance at the crest. There seem to be only 3 marks from bounce 2, which may indicate that the heli was inclined to the south. The fact that the marks are not disturbed may indicate it had already lost power and bounced due to its gained momentum from bounce 1 and the
• Stop at 3: The SE marks seemed to be much deeper than the rest in previous SUPERCAM images. That might indicate that after bouncing (2) on its southernmost legs, the heli gained opposite angular momentum, and hit the ground hard with its eastern - northeastenmost legs and stopped.
I'm hopeful more SUPERCAM images were acquired during Sols 1110-1114 (closest rover approach). The #MarsHelicopter team has promised a detailed description of what they think happened.
@65dBnoise wondering if it tried to land on that very inclined dune surface, and if the resulting tilt would hit an abort threshold, telling it to reposition. Can imagine coding in such a detection to avoid tip-overs on awkward landings.
@ottaross
The last meters of a landing are programmed to be almost free fall to avoid exactly that: wandering on the ground under power. No provision to relocate after landing exists, AFAIK.
I've also just made a combined version of the Mastcam-Z images and Navcam images from Sol 1110.
Now you can zoom in all the way to Ingenuity's final resting place at Valinor Hills. https://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/234523
@stim3on
That a panoramic view of Mars, taken by a robotic rover sent from Earth, and including a helicopter also sent from Earth, is made publicly available by NASA and with the generous contribution of @stim3on's time and expertise, is nothing short of amazing and wonderful.
And we have come to take these thing for granted, now. 🤔
What a great image, and, as always, excellent processing by @stim3on
Add comment