Keep your hats on while the helicopter on Mars takes us on another journey over the Red Planet. NASA has released new footage from the 25th flight of the Ingenuity helicopter, revealing the longest and fastest trip of the small helicopter.
On April 18, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars covered a distance of 2,310 feet (704 meters) at a speed of 12 miles per hour (5.5 meters per second). The video of the flight was released on Friday, as the team is currently preparing for its 29th flight to Mars.
“For our record flight, Ingenuity’s downward-looking navigation camera gave us a breathtaking sense of what it would be like to glide 33 feet above the surface of Mars at 12 miles per hour,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Jet’s head of Ingenuity’s team. NASA’s Southern California Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.
The video is really fun. It begins about a second after the flight, after Ingenuity has already taken off from the Martian surface. After reaching a height of 33 feet (10 meters), the helicopter began to fly southwest. His shadow, passing quickly over the Martian land, seems to be moving with bold determination.
Ingenuity accelerates quickly to its maximum speed within three seconds of flight. The seemingly frantic shots were actually accelerated about five times normal speed, reducing the 161.3-second flight to less than 35 seconds.
The grainy video still allows us to admire the desert terrain of Mars, which begins with smooth sand waves, then becomes more stony about half of the shots before being smoothed again and providing a safe landing site for Ingenuity.
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The helicopter’s black-and-white downward-facing camera is designed to cut when the propeller is within 3 feet (1 meter) of the surface to prevent dust from entering the navigation system.
Ingenuity may have started as an assistant to the rover Perseverance, but this little helicopter has proven itself over and over again. On April 19, 2021, Ingenuity became the first powered aircraft to take off from the surface of another planet. The 19-inch (48 cm), 4-pound (1.8 kg) helicopter is designed to try a whole new way of exploring extraterrestrial worlds and has already far exceeded all expectations, registering 28 flights over Mars – the original mission plan is aimed only to five fields.
Despite recent communication problems between Ingenuity and its companion on the six-wheeled rover, the helicopter was recently created to help Perseverance explore Mars, fly overhead to determine the best routes around the planet.
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