The NASA Ingenuity helicopter does not stop and continues its mission, which is important for science and the NASA Perseverance rover. The aircraft made another flight, staying in the air for almost a minute last weekend during its 33rd extraterrestrial flight.
Ingenuity took to the sky on September 24 for 55 seconds. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, the 1.8-kilogram helicopter rose to a height of about 10 meters and moved a distance of 111 meters before landing in a new location.
Over the weekend, #MarsHelicopter successfully completed Flight 33! The rotorcraft reached an altitude of 10 meters (33 ft) and traveled 111.24 meters (365 ft) in 55.2 seconds. If you look closely at this image, you’ll see Ingenuity’s leg and tiny shadow. pic.twitter.com/4UwPs1bAcV
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) September 27, 2022
Ingenuity helps Perseverance explore the Jezero crater, where a liquid lake and a turbulent river delta existed in the ancient past. In the mid-2020s, NASA and the European Space Agency together plan to launch a sample return mission to this region, which will use Ingenuity-like helicopters to pick up samples contained inside the Perseverance case, and then transport them to a rocket to be sent to Earth. The team recognized the Perseverance sample collection mission and their return to our planet as key to understanding the history and potential of life on Mars.
Earlier we reported on how Ingenuity took a two-month break in the summer.
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