NASA has shared footage from the longest flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars so far.
“The navigation camera on board the rotor captured the longest and fastest flight to date on the Red Planet,” said NASA. “The helicopter traveled 2,310 feet (704 meters) at a top speed of 12 miles per hour (5.5 meters per second)” during its record-breaking 25th flight on April 28.
NASA has also shared (opens in a new window) more information about its plans for Ingenuity in the Martian winter.
“Our latest models suggest that despite modifications to our overnight thermostat strategy,” the agency said, “it will be extremely challenging or even impossible to keep the components of our electronic core module (ECM) warm and within their range.” nominal night temperatures’.
These challenges have already created some problems for NASA. The agency says it has lost communication with Ingenuity since May 3-4 because it is getting too cold on Mars.
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“Due to the seasonal reduction in available solar energy, the increase in airborne dust density and falling temperatures,” says NASA, “energy consumption to keep electronics powered and warm all night has exceeded Ingenuity’s available energy budget.”
So the space agency gives priority to downlink communications – which means it is focused on “copying flight logs, electronic logs and high-resolution color images from the last eight flights still on board Ingenuity”, to make sure that the data will not be lost forever.
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