But taking a look costs rover time. That's very valuable.How can you be sure of this, until someone has pointed a camera at it, carefully studied the photo, and declared "Nope, no new evidence here."?
Visual examination of the machine could reveal something that could cause the computer to freak out. I don't know what that might be, but then, that's exactly why it's worth taking a look.
A recent example from Earth-bound aviation - an Airbus had to abort and return to Brisbane after its fly-by-wire computer system shut down and went into "safe mode" shortly after take off.
A close visual examination of the plane's exterior revealed the problem - mud dauber wasps had started to build nests in the Pitot Tubes, causing the airspeed information fed to the computers to go into wild and impossible swings.
The pilots, manufacturers, and accident investigators didn't expect a visual inspection would be of the slightest use, but they did it anyway, because it's part of the standard procedure for any incident. And, surprise surprise, it turned out to provide the critical information needed to understand the strange behaviour of the flight control computers.
All commercial aircraft that spend more than two hours on the ground at BNE are now required to have pitot tube caps installed (and to have them removed immediately before flight), to prevent wasps from filling the tubes with mud.
I strongly doubt that local wasps were the cause of the failure of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, but if they were, it would be fairly significant news
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- Thread starter Treedbear
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lpetrich
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The Space Review: The case for a fleet of Martian helicopters
Proposing as many as hundreds of Ingenuity-like small helicopters. These would be landed in many different places and they would communicate with orbiting satellites.
Several of them would be carried in a carrier vehicle which would go into Mars orbit and release each one individually. Their small size would make it easier for them to land than the landers so far sent to that planet. That's because of the square-cube law, the principle that enables them to fly: more area per unit mass than for a larger vehicle.
The helicopters could carry a variety of instruments, like high-resolution cameras, radars, and geological-testing equipment.
Proposing as many as hundreds of Ingenuity-like small helicopters. These would be landed in many different places and they would communicate with orbiting satellites.
Several of them would be carried in a carrier vehicle which would go into Mars orbit and release each one individually. Their small size would make it easier for them to land than the landers so far sent to that planet. That's because of the square-cube law, the principle that enables them to fly: more area per unit mass than for a larger vehicle.
The helicopters could carry a variety of instruments, like high-resolution cameras, radars, and geological-testing equipment.