NASA's Mars Helicopter Snags Mysterious Foreign Object on 33rd Flight - ExtremeTech:
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter was intended as a short-term demonstration when it was approved to ride along with the Perseverance rover. However, it's gone above and beyond anyone's expectations. The first-ever flying vehicle on another world has just completed its 33rd flight on Mars. It was a lot like the previous flights, except that Ingenuity appears to have stepped in something. NASA reports a mysterious "foreign debris object" (FOD) was hooked on the helicopter's foot for part of the flight before flying off.
[...] Just after Ingenuity took off, a foreign debris object (FOD) appeared on one of its legs. The record of the flight appears to show the object flapping in the breeze before dropping off. NASA says the FOD's presence did not affect the flight, and Ingenuity landed without issue at Airfield X (NASA stopped naming the landing zones after the first one). Whatever the material was, it was not massive enough to affect the helicopter's telemetry.
The team is currently investigating what the FOD was, but it certainly didn't look like something you'd normally find on Mars. It looked like plastic or paper, judging by the way it moved. That means it either came from Ingenuity, Perseverance, or some other piece of NASA's mission hardware — there's nothing else artificial in that part of the red planet.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Thursday October 06 2022, @03:03AM (6 children)
If You Gonna Acronym...
I love it. Foreign Debris Object. FOD [FOreign Debris object].
3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2022, @03:29AM (2 children)
Sorry, if you're gonna acronym, get it right...
"FOD" is Foreign Object Damage, like when a bird goes into the engine
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2022, @03:59AM (1 child)
Actually, it is both, depending on the context.
FOD (Foreign Object Debris) can lead to FOD (Foreign Object Damage).
From https://standards.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/standards/MSFC/D/0/msfc-std-3598d.pdf: [nasa.gov]
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday October 06 2022, @11:07PM
I think the Debris version came about because people were already using FOD as both a verb and a noun. They needed a meaning for each usage.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Thursday October 06 2022, @04:57PM (2 children)
Acronyms annoy me. When anybody calls a cop a LEO here, I always reply along the lines of "This is S/N. LEO means Low Earth Orbit, officer." Damned kids today are just to lazy to spell shit out. In an article, an acronym should ALWAYS be explained, or the author is an incompetent, talentless hack.
The more I learn, the more I realize how abysmally ignorant I am.
(Score: 4, Touché) by tangomargarine on Friday October 07 2022, @03:17AM (1 child)
*ahem*
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday October 11 2022, @05:14PM
Embarrassing, t is!
The more I learn, the more I realize how abysmally ignorant I am.