NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced another successful Ingenuity flight. It has already become the 63rd for a Martian helicopter drone.
Ingenuity is going the distance!
The #MarsHelicopter completed Flight 63 last week, flying for more than 2 minutes and traveling 579 meters – its longest distance since Flight 25. https://t.co/7DMHj9LkNX pic.twitter.com/Asv1zVhEwt
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) October 23, 2023
The new Ingenuity flight took place on October 19. Its main goals were to move the spacecraft to a new location and conduct aerial reconnaissance for the Perseverance rover.
Despite the fact that Ingenuity did not set any new records this time, the drone recorded a rather impressive distance to its account. In total, it flew 579 meters. This is its longest flight since February 2023.
As for the other indicators, the maximum speed of Ingenuity was 6.3 m/s, height — 12 meters. The drone was in the Martian sky for 142 seconds.
Recall that Ingenuity first took to the air in April 2021. The initial mission program was designed for five flights over 30 days. But in the end, Ingenuity significantly exceeded all expectations. As of today, its total flight time is 115 minutes. In total, the drone flew a distance of 14,492 meters.
Follow us on Twitter to get the most interesting space news in time
https://twitter.com/ust_magazine
