Proposed Last Flight for Ingenuity (Apple ProRes UHD with 5.1 Audio)
9Sadly, this flight will never happen because it is deemed to risky to fly that close to Perseverance. However, that doesn't mean you can't fly any way you want when "Ingenuity in VR" is made available soon.
Technical Notes:
Notice the inset video which is from the perspective of Ingenuity's RTE color camera. What is interesting is the paper written in 2018 by Bob Balaram, lead engineer for the Ingenuity project, states that this is a Sony IMX-214, with 4208 x 3120 effective pixels (confirmed in the images sent back from Ingenuity). The problem is this is a 1/3.2 sensor (same one used in the Apple iPhone 5) and there is no way that the FOV is only 47 degrees, which I have figured to be about a 93.92 degrees horizontally to allow the landing feet to show (and why you see some geometric distortion as well), and the 22 degree horizon offset cannot be true either, since it needs to be more like 42 degrees to not show the rover. It is a little odd, that they didn't pitch up, or climb a couple more meters to take a picture of the rover. Also, with an 93.92 degree FOV, you can capture an entire 360 with four 90 degree offset rotations with 3 degrees overlap, five 72 degree offsets would be better, giving you 20 degrees of overlap, but requiring five images to be processed and uploaded. I am surprised that they did not already capture these images, but I did have to pitch up to take these shots above the horizon. At 5.2 meters, this would be a very impressive 360 panoramic. Add a few more, pitched up and down and you can create a equirectangular at 13 megapixel per image. Let's hope they do this before the end of the week. It also dawned on me that if this is still active when Perseverance moves on, they should just program a flight path to keep it within radio distance. With the panoramic, its laser range finder and B/W lookdown camera, they should be able to stay clear of any surfaces that could cause it to tip. Even if does land canted, it can always send back IMU data so they can program it to pitch the propellers for vertical flight.
Technical Unreal Engine Notes:
This teaser video shows off the latest updates to the Mars landscape, including some unique ways in using Unreal Engine's Terrain painting to actually paint orthographic textures created from photogrammetry 3D models created from NASA JPL Perseverance Mastcam-Z images from SOL-3, as well as hours of handplanting to create a similar terrain. The rover tracks was done by creating decals and laying them down like railroad tracks. Next week I finish up the physics model and controls, stayed tuned for updates as we closer to release and sadly Ingenuity reaches its final week before Perseverance packs up and moves on leaving Ingenuity to stranded, but still able to fly. My hopes is that they start mapping flights that keep it close enough to Perseverance to continue relaying images back.
#ingenuityhelicopter #perseverancerover #VR