Foreign Debris Seen on Mars During Ingenuity Helicopter Flight

No Damage Detected, Investigation Underway

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which has been exploring Mars since April 2021, encountered a small piece of foreign object debris (FOD) during its 33rd flight.

Foreign Debris Seen in Navcam Footage

During the 33rd flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, a small piece of foreign object debris was spotted in the footage from the navigation camera (Navcam). The FOD was not visible in the Navcam footage from the previous flight. It was seen in the earliest frames of the Flight 33 Navcam imagery and remained visible for about half of the video before falling from the leg and drifting back to the Mars surface.

No Indication of Vehicle Damage

Despite the presence of the FOD, all telemetry from the flight and a post-flight search and transfer showed no indication of vehicle damage. The Ingenuity and Perseverance Mars 2020 teams are currently investigating the source of the debris.

Ingenuity Continues to Explore Mars

Ingenuity has been exploring Mars since April 2021 and has completed 33 flights as of the time of this writing. Its primary mission was to demonstrate the viability of powered flight on Mars, but it has also been used to scout out locations of interest for the Perseverance rover and to gather data on the Martian atmosphere.

Original article: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-foreign-debris-mars-ingenuity-helicopter.html