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from the good-things-come-to-those-who-wait dept.
Straight from NASA we have word of a delay in the first flight of Ingenuity on Mars.
Mars Helicopter Flight Delayed To No Earlier Than April 14 - Nasa Mars:
Based on data from the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that arrived late Friday night, NASA has chosen to reschedule the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's first experimental flight to no earlier than April 14.
During a high-speed spin test of the rotors on Friday, the command sequence controlling the test ended early due to a "watchdog" timer expiration. This occurred as it was trying to transition the flight computer from 'Pre-Flight' to 'Flight' mode. The helicopter is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth.
The watchdog timer oversees the command sequence and alerts the system to any potential issues. It helps the system stay safe by not proceeding if an issue is observed and worked as planned.
The helicopter team is reviewing telemetry to diagnose and understand the issue. Following that, they will reschedule the full-speed test.
NASA has a web site devoted to Ingenuity.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday April 12 2021, @05:48PM
This is the reason I mention the Apollo program. It went from nothing to man on the moon in 7 years, with half the yearly budget (inflation adjusted) of modern NASA. There's something much more systemic going on at NASA.
That's not to say I don't agree that the constant cancel/rebrand/restart every ~8 years is a problem. It's likely working in tandem, but I do believe that if we had the talent at NASA they had in the 60s - they could be achieving some rather remarkable things, instead of spending their efforts trying to hype the launch of a toy drone.