The Mars helicopter Ingenuity now has flown greater than 42,369 toes throughout the floor of Mars. The very best altitude it has reached is rather less than 60 toes above the floor of the Purple Planet. Illustration courtesy of NASA
Aug. 31 (UPI) — Ingenuity, the tiny helicopter that has far surpassed expectations on Mars, has accomplished its 56th flight, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab introduced Thursday.
Ingenuity flew 1,334 toes, somewhat over 1 / 4 of a mile, throughout the Martian floor final Saturday, JPL stated in a statement. The tiny chopper flew at a most altitude of about 39 toes above the floor of the Purple Planet.
“The purpose of this flight was to reposition the helicopter,” the assertion reads.
The $80 million helicopter first flew at what has been known as the Wright Brothers Airfield on the Martian floor in April 2021.
The helicopter was meant to exhibit powered, managed flight on one other world for the primary time, in keeping with NASA. The check was meant to happen over a 30-Martian-day experimental window.
The know-how demonstration was accomplished after three profitable flights and Ingenuity transitioned to a brand new operations demonstration part “to discover how future rovers and aerial explorers can work collectively.”
NASA officers informed UPI on Wednesday that the helicopter will proceed mapping the planet’s floor so long as it could possibly nonetheless fly.
In whole, the helicopter has now flown greater than 42,369 toes throughout the floor of the planet, or somewhat over eight miles. The very best altitude it has reached is rather less than 60 toes above the floor of Mars.
Nonetheless, Ingenuity went silent on April 26, main its controllers to worry that it was destroyed by the tough temperatures on the fourth planet from the solar.
However then, on June 28, Ingenuity phoned house through the Perseverance rover — the primary phrase from the chopper because it went silent on the ground of the Jezero Crater after its 52nd flight.
“Demonstrating coordination between Perseverance and Ingenuity stays a foremost purpose,” Joshua Anderson, Ingenuity’s staff lead at JPL, informed UPI.
NASA is now engaged on creating extra light-weight helicopters to help retrieving Martian samples to be loaded right into a rocket-propelled container prepared to hold them to Earth.
