The Mars Ingenuity helicopter refused to take its fourth flight

[Mike Wehner]

NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter already completed the milestones that its team set forth for it. The three goals were fairly straightforward. First, it had to fly in a Mars simulation chamber on Earth. Check. Then, it had to fly on the real Mars. Check. Lastly, it had to travel horizontally on Mars and return for a safe landing. Check! By the helicopter's third flight, all of these challenges had already been met, and with its fourth flight, Ingenuity was going to "push the envelope," according to NASA, and fly for much longer and farther than it ever had before.

Apparently, Ingenuity wasn't on board with that plan. NASA sent the commands to the small aircraft on Thursday and, as the team usually does as it waits for the long communications delay to catch up to the helicopter, it waited for confirmation that the helicopter had launched, flown, and landed as asked. Unfortunately, the team received a message it wasn't expecting. The helicopter hadn't done much of anything and was sitting right where it had been all day. Uh oh.

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The Mars Ingenuity helicopter refused to take its fourth flight originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 30 Apr 2021 at 17:19:27 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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