(NASA)
The martian drone "Ingenuity" was able to independently clean the nodes of the swashplate from dust that got there during a recent dust storm.
At the same time, the drone received an update to the navigation camera software and made its twentieth flight.
Initially, Ingenuity was supposed to make only five test flights to Mars in one month, but the drone has been operating on the Red Planet for almost a year and has completed 20 flights.
Specialists have not yet begun to limit the period of his work as an aerial reconnaissance officer for the Perseverance rover.
In January of this year, the drone survived its first major dust storm, making its 19th flight since.
However, during the analysis of the state of the device, two problems were identified: dust contamination of the navigation camera lens, especially along the periphery of the field of view, and swashplate units.
However, solutions to the problems have been found.
The aircraft has received camera software updates that allow certain areas of the image to be ignored and not used to maintain orientation while the image is flying.
As for the propellers of the drone, the engineers conducted a trial procedure for shaking the servos, which allowed dust and sand to be shaken out of the swashplate nodes.
On February 25, Ingenuity made its twentieth flight, breaking 62 meters in 99.98 seconds, moving at a speed of 4.4 meters per second.
The purpose of this and future flights is to arrive at the first airstrip where it was originally dropped by the rover.
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