Ingenuity is set to take its first flight on Sunday, although the results of the flight won't be known until Monday.
Ingenuity's flight has been pushed back to no earlier than 14APR. During a rotor test on Friday, a watchdog timer expiration occurred when the flight computer was transitioning from "Pre-flight" to "Flight" mode.
Now, at end of life, perhaps it can alight upon a hill. An electric motor and generator is the same right? Maybe the wind could push the blades and slowly build up charge for cameras?
I don't think it was engineered that way. Just the solar cells to recharge the batteries. As they keep saying, "Mars is hard." We've been fortunate with the recent rovers, but a good number just don't make it. Ingenuity is just the first baby step to figure out if they can fly on Mars. I suppose a balloon could work, although it would probably quickly drift out of range.
Not if yo had a balloon with small motors on it to guide it in various directions like a balloon drone kind of thing. Maybe make for longer flights if that is possible.
We're about to find out if Ingenuity's first flight was successful... data coming in now! Edit: Successful flight confirmed!
What's even more exciting is by the end of the week we'll not only have all the data but they did video of the flight.
Spoiler Mile High Club membership [✓] [ ] Discovery of parts of Amelia Earhart's skeleton [ ] [ ] Mid-flight incident that results in safe landing on the Hudson River [✓] [ ]
Ingenuity's second flight on SOL 18 (22 April 2021) was a success. It flew for 51.9 seconds to a height of 5 meters and moved sideways for 2 meters before returning to original takeoff point. (footage from Perseverance Mastcam-Z)
Barely saw it move. The skycrane footage is going to be hard to beat. I would have thought a glider—not a minichopper—-would have made the first flight.
Ingenuity made its third flight today, SUN 25APR2021. Rose to a height of 5 meters but flew downrange 50 meters, reaching a top speed of 2 meters per second.
Ingenuity's fourth flight, scheduled for this morning (29APR2021), failed to transition to flight mode. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had previously identified an issue earlier this month that showed a 15% chance that each flight attempt might encounter a watchdog timer expiration and would not transition to flight mode. They will attempt another flight on FRI 30APR2021 at 1130 EDT/0830 PDT.
Attempt two of Ingenuity's fourth flight succeeded! It flew for 117 seconds a travelled a total of 266-meter round trip at a height of 5-meters. Its fifth flight will land at a new location instead of returning to Wright Brothers Field and will mark the beginning of "operations demonstration phase." With this new phase, flights will be occurring about every two or three weeks with flight operations expected to be completed by the end of August.
Ingenuity's sixth flight didn't go as planned. It was supposed to climb to an altitude of 10 meters, fly southwest for 150 meters at a speed of 4 mps, fly south for 15 meter while taking images west, and finally going 50 meters northeast before landing. The first leg went as planned but then Ingenuity started tilting back and forth, rolling and pitching more than 20 degrees. It finally landed within 5 meters of the intended landing site. Link to NASA article with video of final 29 seconds of flight.