On September 25, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter took off into the Martian sky for the 60th time. During the flight, the spacecraft broke its own speed record.
60 flights – and another new record!
Ingenuity completed is Flight 60, breaking a groundspeed record by hitting ~17.9 mph (8 m/s). The mighty #MarsHelicopter covered 1,116 ft (340 m) in 133 seconds at an altitude of 53 ft (16 m). https://t.co/7DMHj9LkNX pic.twitter.com/f3LqrRtqRE
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) September 26, 2023
The main objectives of the anniversary flight were to move Ingenuity to a new position and photograph the surrounding area to search for scientific goals for the Perseverance rover. In total, Ingenuity is in the air for 133 seconds. During this time, it covered a distance of 340 meters, moving at an altitude of 16 meters.
During the new flight, Ingenuity again updated one of its records — this time the speed. The maximum speed developed by the spacecraft was 8 m/s (28.8 km/h). The previous achievement was 6.5 m/s.
Recall that Ingenuity is a technology demonstrator. The spacecraft was designed for only 30 days of operation, during which it had to make only five flights. But as is often the case with NASA technology, Ingenuity has repeatedly exceeded its original plan. During the two years of its stay on Mars, the spacecraft overcame a distance exceeding 13 km and spent over 100 minutes in the sky of the planet.
Recall that recently Ingenuity also broke its altitude record.
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