I love how well this little aircraft has worked out. The official mission for it was to validate an idea - to conduct five flights to demonstrate that it was possible, so that future missions could potentially include a little scout drone that could fly ahead and help find routes through difficult terrain. Then it worked so well that they started doing that on this mission, too - they're past fifty flights now and have been using photos from Ingenuity to plan Perseverance's next moves. The team who built this little drone must be thrilled.

[–] freeman@lemmy.pub 5 points 1 year ago

It really is amazing. Especially considering how thin the air is there and how fast the rotors have to spin to compensate. Along with how much dust there is, that has t caused any mechanical issues etc.

Add to that, they basically have to write a flight path program and let er rip and hope it returns correctly. How they even orient position and direction with a minimum 15 minute lag is crazy to me.

Some of these things are a challenge to me, with direct and immediate control of my drone (albeit there are more obstacles). But just not landing on a rock or kicking up a bunch of prop wash that harms the propellers is crazy.