The Mars Ingenuity copter has completed its twelfth flight. Story from Ars Technica.
NASA's tiny Mars helicopter, which has a fuselage about the size of a small toaster, has successfully flown above the planet for the 12th time.
Nearly half a year after the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter is still going strong on the surface of the planet. The small flyer has done so well that it has been separated from Perseverance for some time as it scouts ahead on the red planet.
Ingenuity completed its latest flight on Monday, ascending to 10 meters and flying 450 meters across Mars to investigate what scientists call the "South Séítah" region of Mars. The helicopter was aloft for a total of 169 seconds during Monday's flight. In its dozen flights, Ingenuity has now covered 2.67 km, which is farther than Perseverance has rolled during nearly six months.
For Monday's flight, Ingenuity flew out over this intriguing region to scout its boulders and other geological features to help mission scientists determine whether they warrant further scrutiny by Perseverance. After slowing over this area of interest to take photographs, Ingenuity then flew back to its takeoff point. The flight involved significant risk because Ingenuity's terrain navigation system was designed to fly across nearly flat terrain. Rocky terrain could induce errors in pitch and roll during flight.
Yes, little rotor-craft, flying on the edge! And actually doing useful reconnaissance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @08:12PM
I *will* have my ROFLcopter!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @08:59PM (10 children)
What the hell does "come a cropper" mean?
(Score: 3, Informative) by vux984 on Wednesday August 18 2021, @09:49PM (9 children)
What kind of person takes the time to write a question like this and post it on a site on the internet?
It really would have been easier to just look it up on that same internet:
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/come+a+cropper [thefreedictionary.com]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @09:58PM
Can we just let this saying die. Boring.
And it's on Mars. So it would be "become a crater"
Or maybe the first Mars aircraft junk yard.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @10:15PM (5 children)
A competent story editor would not use terms in the title that needed to be "looked up" by most of their audience.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @10:47PM
A competent AC would have been able to turn it into a sexual innuendo. So we're all basically 2nd raters on here. Go to the other place for real winners.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @11:18PM
We have the cachet of Arse Technica.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 18 2021, @11:19PM
Oh, don't be such a quagswagging hoddypeak, and let the yemeles scriptitation be persevered.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 19 2021, @04:05PM (1 child)
Sorry he forced you to learn something. I know you guys hate that shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 19 2021, @06:26PM
It's the headline, it's not even the summary. If it were in the summary, that would have been a bit more reasonable. Even if we did know what the slang meant, it would still be piss poor editing to put it in the title .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 19 2021, @07:21AM (1 child)
At least Ingenuity did not "screw the pooch", or "kick the bucket", or "ignite the oxygen tanks on the orbiting vessel", or "crash and burn", or "drop the ball", or "mess up in a mission terminating fashion". Are we clear on the idiom, or illiterate young American?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 19 2021, @03:16PM
It's like the difference between metric and imperial. Some of us old stuck-in-the-muds still remember the good old days...
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 18 2021, @10:09PM
They need to be planning ahead. When does the stormy season start? If they can find a cave bear's home, maybe they can park the chopper in there until spring. The batteries will probably die without direct sunlight, but the rover can always pick it up, and bring it out on a nice sun shiny day!
Be sure to check the ceiling of the cave for drop bears before entering.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz