NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity has performed it once more, hovering efficiently on its twenty second Crimson Planet flight.
The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity stayed aloft for 101.4 seconds and reached a most altitude of 33 ft (10 meters) through the sortie, which befell on Sunday (March 20), in response to a Monday (March 21) tweet by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which manages Ingenuity’s mission.
Ingenuity and NASA’s Perseverance rover landed collectively inside Mars’ Jezero Crater in February 2021. Jezero hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years in the past, making it a terrific spot for the life-hunting, sample-caching Perseverance to discover, NASA officers have stated.
Associated: 1 12 months later, Ingenuity helicopter nonetheless going sturdy on Mars
The little chopper rapidly aced its five-flight unique mission, which was designed to indicate that aerial exploration is feasible on Mars. After this success, NASA granted Ingenuity a mission extension, throughout which the rotorcraft has been serving as a scout for Perseverance.
The rover’s handlers are presently steering Perseverance towards an accessible a part of the traditional delta, and Ingenuity’s observations are serving to them choose the perfect route, mission workforce members have stated.
Throughout its first 21 flights, Ingenuity flew a complete of 15,247 ft (4,647 m) and stayed within the air for almost 39 minutes, in response to a flight log maintained by the mission workforce.
These numbers ought to proceed to develop past the additions supplied by Sunday’s flight; Ingenuity is in good well being, JPL officers have stated, and NASA just lately prolonged the helicopter’s operations once more, by means of a minimum of this September.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Fb.