NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter aces longest Mars flight in 18 months

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter stretched its legs a bit of at the Purple Planet final week.The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity performed its 63rd Mars flight on Thursday (Oct. 19), masking 1,901 ft (579 meters) of floor within the procedure.That used to be “its longest distance since Flight 25,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages Ingenuity’s venture, stated by the use of X (previously Twitter) on Monday (Oct. 23).Similar: Mars helicopter Ingenuity telephones house, breaking 63-day silenceIngenuity flew for two,310 ft (704 m) on Flight 25, which happened on April 8, 2022. That is the rotorcraft’s single-flight distance report, adopted by way of 2,051 ft (625 m) on Flight 9 in July 2021. Flight 63 is in 3rd position.This newest sortie lasted 143 seconds, in keeping with the venture’s flight log. Ingenuity were given a most of 39 ft (12 m) above the bottom and reached a best velocity of about 14.1 mph (22.7 kph). The ones numbers are not data, both; the superlatives in the ones classes are 169.5 seconds, 66 ft (20 m) in altitude and 22.4 mph (36 kph), in keeping with the flight log.Ingenuity landed inside of Mars’ 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021 with NASA’s Perseverance rover.The helicopter’s authentic process used to be to exhibit that powered flight is imaginable on Mars, in spite of the planet’s skinny environment. Ingenuity did so over the path of 5 flights within the spring of 2021. NASA then granted a venture extension, right through which the chopper is serving as a scout for the life-hunting, sample-collecting Perseverance.

Author: OpenAI