Fortunate 13 – Ingenuity to Get Decrease for Extra Detailed Photos Throughout Subsequent Flight

“The longer you look again, the farther you may look ahead.” –Winston Churchill 

Following Flight 12’s scouting pictures of “South Séítah,” which have been the Most worthy Ingenuity has taken so far, we’re taking Winston’s recommendation for Ingenuity’s 13^th flight. We are going to once more be venturing throughout into Seítah to scout an space of outcrops glimpsed in Flight 12 imagery – however we’re taking these new photos whereas wanting again, pointing in the wrong way.

Going down no sooner than Saturday, Sept. 4 at 5:08 p.m. PDT, or 12:04 LMST (native Mars time), the 193^rd sol (Martian day) of the Perseverance mission, the flight will once more journey into the geologically intriguing South Séítah area. Nevertheless, as a substitute of probing additional into Séítah and taking photos of a number of ridgelines and outcrops (which we did on 12), we’ll be concentrating on one specific ridgeline and its outcrops throughout Flight 13. We’ll even be flying at a decrease altitude – 26 ft (8 meters), versus the 33 ft (10 meters) throughout 12.

One other large distinction is which means our digital camera can be pointing. For Flight 13, we’ll be capturing pictures pointing southwest. And once they’re mixed with Flight 12’s northeast views, the overlapping pictures from a decrease altitude ought to present beneficial perception for Perseverance scientists and rover drive planners. 

While you examine our estimated flight time and distance travelled for this journey, it once more reinforces simply how a lot we’re concentrating our efforts in a single small space. On Flight 12 we lined 1,476 ft (450 meters) of Martian floor in 169.5 seconds and took 10 photos (once more – all pointed northeast). On 13, we’ll cowl about 690 ft (210 meters) in round 161 seconds and take 10 photos (pointing southwest)… 

And for these of you scoring at residence, on 13 we’ll even be touring at 7.3 mph (3.3 meters per second). We did 10 mph (4.3 meters per second) throughout 12.

Whereas we’re speaking about numbers, in our final weblog, Chief Pilot Håvard talked about our logbook (the Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons). Beneath is an up to date ledger of a few of the most necessary numbers for Ingenuity’s Mars flights up to now. Together with these listed under, we’ve taken 72 13-megapixel coloration pictures and 1,390 black-and-white navigation digital camera pictures. We’re wanting ahead so as to add to those numbers and studying extra about that ridgeline when “fortunate 13” is within the books.