@65dBnoise
We don't yet have RTE images from #Flight43, let alone #Flight44.

Unless Ingenuity was in such a rush to get ahead that no RTE photos were taken, but that would be very unlikely, I'd think.

the 126m long obstruction had a depth of 1.3m.

There is no data available on radio propagation in UHF frequencies at ground level on Mars; one similar situation might have been encountered in the Apollo missions on the Moon, but it is unknown to me if any radio propagation study was carried out before or after those missions.

Putting the above to work for #Flight44, we see that the distance to a possible #Flight44 landing is around 675m, almost 2x that of #Flight43.

3/

when a max 5m obstruction blocked the path for a length of 275m. Generalizing on that may be an oversimplification of radio propagation physics, of course, but if taken as a very rough empirical guide, it might indicate that the conditions on Sol 703, when #Flight43 was announced, did not provide for a workable RF link to support data transfer after flight. The flight indeed occurred 5 sols later, on Sol 708, when the rover moved to a much closer distance of ~150m, where
2/

#MarsHelicopter

#Ingenuity's #Flight43 was announced on 2023-02-10, or Sol 703 of the #Mars2020 mission, when #Perseverance was about 345m from the #MarsHelicopter. The ground profile (image 1) shows a ground obstruction depth of max 5m for about 225m of the total distance separating the two crafts. The only publicly known communications failure occurred after #Flight17 (image 2)[1]. It shows that there was no workable radio link
1/

[1] https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/350/flight-17-discovering-limits

#NASA #Solarocks #Space

My estimate for the location of #Ingenuity's #Flight43 landing; a 373m straight line distance. Dark areas are not visible by the #MarsHelicopter.

It is possible that the flight path was not straight, which would account for the 390m given in #NASA's announcement.

Map made with #QGIS using data from #HiRISE #MMGIS and #JPL

#Mars2020 #Solarocks #Space

#Ingenuity's #Flight43.
Landing.

10 processed, stabilized, animated HELI_NAV images
Flight 43, Sol: 708, LMST: 16:05:40
Original: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-images/pub/ods/surface/sol/00708/ids/edr/browse/heli/HNM_0708_0729806076_269ECM_N0430001HELI04848_0000A0J01.png
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise

#MarsHelicopter #Mars2020 #Solarocks #Space

Changes in LOS with different possible one-way 390m #Flight43 landings, to the NW.

#Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter #NASA #HiRISE #MMGIS #Solarocks #Space #QGIS

Changes in LOS with different possible one-way 390m #Flight43, to the NW. Of course a 390m flight could also follow a dog legged flight path 🤔

#Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter #NASA #HiRISE #MMGIS #Solarocks #Space #QGIS

Changes in LOS with different possible one-way 390m #Flight43, to the NW. Of course a 390m flight could also follow a dog legged flight path 🤔

#Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter #NASA #HiRISE #MMGIS #Solarocks #Space #QGIS

#Ingenuity is now a lot closer to #Perseverance, at about 150m, assuming the heli has not flown yet #Flight43. LOS has not been established (see profile) but it's now at shallower depth and much closer, so UHF comms may be better. Predicting UHF propagation like this is unprofessional, but no hard data upon which better predictions can be made has been published as of today, AFAICT. The map shows the LOS "shadow" in dark colors.

#MarsHelicopter #Mars2020 #NASA #Solarocks #Space

Here is a reason why the #MarsHelicopter's #Flight43 may be a round trip: there is absolutely no visibility between the current location of #Perseverance and the anticipated landing 43 for a long 377m flight (map). The profile shows the ground obstructing the LOS path completely all the way from the rover to the landing, a ~710m distance, making UHF comms very difficult or impossible.

Apparently for any new landing uphill of the heli's current location, the

1/

#Mars2020 #Solarocks #Space

I re-posted a couple of posts from Fosstodon as a reference in anticipation of news coming in for #Flight43 of #Ingenuity any time now.

#Mars2020 #MarsHelicopter #Solarocks