Continues to amaze. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter sets a record on Mars

January 5, 18:05 Share:

Ingenuity traveled a record distance to the Red Planet (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter set another record during its 69th flight to the Red Planet.

By this time, the helicopter, which landed on Mars along with the Perseverance spacecraft in February 2021, had already made 70 flights. The penultimate of them, held on December 20, marked a record. The aircraft weighing only 1.8 kg was able to fly a distance of almost 705 meters. Before this, the longest distance the device had covered was 704 meters, according to the flight log on the NASA website.. The previous record stood since April 2022.

In addition, during the last two flights ( December 15 and 20) the helicopter reached a speed of 22.4 miles per hour or 10 meters per second. This is the maximum speed of the device, which was first recorded in October 2023.

In total, Ingenuity, which was designed for only 5 flights, has already covered about 17.7 kilometers, together with the Perseverance rover exploring the surface of the planet and collecting samples for analysis in the Jezero Crater. His last, 70th Ingenuity flight took place on December 22.

Recall that the Perseverance and Ingenuity mission to Mars is aimed at astrobiological research, in particular, searching for signs of ancient microbial life on this planet. It is part of NASA's lunar and Mars exploration strategy, which will also include astronaut missions to prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet.

The most anticipated NASA event in 2024, as NV Techno wrote, should be the launch of the Artemis II mission. During the mission, four astronauts on the Orion spacecraft must fly around the Moon.

Read also: Looks like a potato. A rover from the Emirates received unique photos of the satellite of Mars. NASA's Perseverance rover found traces of a river on the Red Planet Two kilometers high. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captures a huge dust devil