The Ingenuity helicopter, which landed on Mars in February with NASA’s Perseverance rover robot, has contributed greatly to the discoveries made on the Red Planet so far. Unfortunately, the helicopter’s sensors could not withstand this intensity.
Why did the Mars helicopter break down?
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is of great importance as it can communicate with both the Perseverance and NASA crew. It is possible to find the current position, speed and direction of the helicopter with its components such as inertial measurement unit, laser range finder, navigation camera, inclinometer navigation sensor.
NASA will bid farewell to Mars InSight this year
NASA Ingenuity chief pilot Havard Grip said in a statement that the inclinometer navigation sensor was broken. This sensor contains two accelerometers and is used to determine the direction of gravity. Even though it is not used during the flight, it tries to calculate the turn during take-off.
It has been announced that this malfunction, which adversely affects the efficiency of research, can be eliminated based on the accelerometer in the inertial measurement unit. The helicopter team will release a patch for this in the near future.
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