Flight 8 Success, Software Updates, and Next Steps - NASA Mars

As of June 21, 2021, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has successfully flown its 8th flight, traveling about 525 feet (160 meters) south-southeast from Airfield D to the new Airfield E! This marks the third flight in the Operations Demonstration Phase of Ingenuity, in which the team will continue to push the flight envelope of the aircraft while learning valuable operational lessons. Flight 8 was also the first flight the vehicle executed since performing an update of its Flight-Controller flight software and all telemetry indicates that the update was a success!

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image on June 22, 2021 using its black and white navigation camera. This camera is mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›

Ingenuity first encountered its watchdog issue during commissioning on Sol 49, April 9, 2021. The symptom of the problem is that the helicopter cannot transition into the “flight-state” within the software. Without this internal state transition, the helicopter cannot spin its blades up to full speed, and, therefore, cannot fly. The issue stems from a computer protection and reliability feature between our Flight Controller microcontrollers and our Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). When attempting to transition to the “flight-state,” the watchdog on the FPGA would detect violations to its strict timing requirements and prevent Ingenuity from continuing with its planned spin/flight. The team identified a sequence workaround that would allow us to proceed with flight activities, but we have a 15% probability of needing re-attempts if the watchdog triggered again.

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