NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has been on Mars virtually two years and the high-tech contraption continues to be in adequate form to get airborne.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the NASA unit overseeing the newest Mars mission that additionally contains the Perseverance rover, tweeted a GIF (beneath) displaying the view from Ingenuity because it buzzed above the martian floor on Wednesday, January 11.
Throughout Ingenuity’s thirty ninth flight, the plane stayed within the air for round 79 seconds. It flew a distance of 460 ft (140.25 meters) and reached an altitude of 33 ft (10 meters) earlier than returning to its launch location.
Ingenuity didn’t break any data throughout its newest flight, nor did it carry out any specific duties, nevertheless it confirmed to JPL operators that the plucky machine continues to be in wonderful working order and all set for additional missions to help the Perseverance rover.
Ingenuity and Perseverance arrived on the crimson planet in spectacular vogue in February 2021, and the helicopter took its first historic hover two months later in April, turning into the primary plane to realize powered, managed flight on a planet apart from Earth.
Its longest time within the air is 169.5 seconds, achieved on flight 12 in August 2021, whereas the longest distance coated thus far is a formidable 2,325 ft (708.9 meters), achieved in April 2022. It’s additionally reached speeds as quick as 12.3 mph (19.8 kph) and and flown as excessive as 46 ft (14 meters) throughout its quite a few journeys.
The plane was initially despatched to Mars to easily check the viability of such a tool in an environment a lot thinner than Earth’s, which means it confronted a better problem to get airborne as carry is more durable to realize there. However after nailing the primary flight, and a number of other thereafter, the Ingenuity group began utilizing the helicopter’s down-facing digicam to help the ground-based Perseverance rover.
Ingenuity did this by capturing photos of the terrain, enabling the rover group to plan safer and extra environment friendly routes for its automobile because it set about exploring areas of scientific curiosity.
NASA is now contemplating constructing a extra superior model of Ingenuity that may very well be used as a part of the Mars Pattern Return mission that may endeavor to return martian mud and rock samples to Earth within the early 2030s.
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