NASA Mars Helicopter Takes Flight With Weird Debris Stuck to Its Leg
Ingenuity joins the Perseverance rover in dealing with oddball debris on the red planet.
NASA's experimental Ingenuity helicopter hopes to take flight on Mars.
NASA's plucky Ingenuity helicopter rose off the Martian ground on Sept. 24 for a short repositioning flight, and it looks like it wasn't alone. Navigation images from the flight appear to show a light-colored, flowing object stuck to the chopper for at least part of the journey.
The fabric-like object in the lower corner circled in red seems to have taken part of a flight with NASA's Ingenuity helicopter in September.
The object looks like a little piece of toilet paper that might get stuck to the bottom of your shoe on Earth. NASA calls these unidentified things "foreign debris objects," or FOD.
The navigation camera is positioned on the bottom of the rotorcraft. Usually, one of Ingenuity's four feet appears in a corner of the images, but the rest aren't visible. The streamer appeared in a different corner and seemed to flop around during the flight.
Images from a little later in the flight don't show anything unusual in the corner, suggesting the debris may have fallen off or disappeared out of camera range.
There's something on your foot, #MarsHelicopter! 👀
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) October 1, 2022
We’re looking into a bit of debris that ended up on Ingenuity's foot during its latest aerial commute. As shown in the GIF, it eventually came off and did not impact a successful Flight 33. https://t.co/S78Chpo2uO pic.twitter.com/oFnRUBy4aq
Since there's no toilet paper on Mars I know of, I've dropped a line to NASA to see if the item in question has been identified or analyzed and if it's a cause for concern for the rotorcraft's operation.
NASA JPL said in a statement on Friday it's looking into the source of the debris, saying, "All telemetry from the flight and a post-flight search and transfer are nominal and show no indication of vehicle damage."
Ingenuity is buzzing around the Jezero Crater on Mars along with its companion Perseverance rover. Ingenuity's latest flight was its 33rd, a testament to the machine's longevity. The resilient helicopter has long outlived its expected lifespan and continues to impress with its ability to take to the skies despite occasional technical challenges and dusty conditions that strain its solar-powered battery system.
Jezero is a windy place and Perseverance has already encountered a fair amount of debris that seems to be left over from its dramatic arrival in early 2021. That debris has varied from a spaghetti-like clump of material to a shiny piece of foil to a bit thread-like string that got into its sample system. It's likely Ingenuity's stowaway has a similar origin story.