Martian Dust is Starting to Darken Ingenuity's Solar Panel

Animation of one of Ingenuity’s flights, using pictures taken by the helicopter. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech.

“We have always known that Martian winter and dust storm season would present new challenges for Ingenuity, specifically colder sols, an increase in atmospheric dust, and more frequent dust storms,” said Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos,“Every flight and every mile of distance flown beyond our original 30-sol mission has pushed the spacecraft to its limits each and every sol on Mars.”

Ingenuity – the little 1.8 kg helicopter that has flown her way into our spacey hearts — became the first powered aircraft to operate on another world, making its first flight on April 19, 2021. The original mission plan was to make five experimental test flights over a span of 30 Martian days . But Ingenuity has flown 28 times, covering 6.9 kilometers .

Ingenuity’s heaters are key to keeping electronics and other components within operational temperatures. As the FPGA turned off, its internal clock reset. JPL said that when the Sun rose the next morning and the solar array began to charge the batteries, the helicopter’s clock was no longer in sync with the clock aboard the rover. Essentially, when Ingenuity thought it was time to contact Perseverance, the rover’s base station wasn’t listening.

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