NASA Mars Helicopter Takes Flight With Weird Debris Stuck to Its Leg
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:39 pm
NASA Mars Helicopter Takes Flight With Weird Debris Stuck to Its Leg
https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa ... o-its-leg/
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.
A black and white view of dusty Mars surface with helicopter foot visible in one corner and a small, light streamer-like object in another.
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.
https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa ... o-its-leg/
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.
A black and white view of dusty Mars surface with helicopter foot visible in one corner and a small, light streamer-like object in another.
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.