NASA’s Mars copter needs a software update ahead of its flight test

After reviewing the data from an earlier test, the team behind NASA’s Ingenuity copter laid out a plan to get it ready to take flight on Mars. While a timeline for its flight test is still up in the air, the team is modifying and reinstalling the copter’s flight control software to deal with a “command sequence issue.” 

We’ve all probably had one or two software installations go wrong, and those weren’t being delivered wirelessly over 174 million miles to the first vehicle that will attempt powered flight on another planet. Predictably, the team is taking their to test out the new software here first, before uploading it and hopefully setting a date for more tests next week.