NASA has shared a video (above) that maps the entire flights taken on Mars by its trailblazing Ingenuity helicopter.
Ingenuity turned the primary plane to realize powered, managed flight on one other planet when its rotors fired up for the primary time to hold it above the martian floor in April 2021.
Following that profitable take a look at hover, the drone-like machine took an additional 71 flights that lined a complete distance of 11 miles. The mission led to January after a heavy touchdown precipitated rotor harm that prevented the it from flying once more.
NASA’s video numbers every of the 72 flights, together with the one which noticed it spend the longest time within the air (flight 12, 169.5 seconds), the best one (flight 61, 24 meters, hover solely), the quickest ones (flights 62, 68, and 69, 10 meters per second), and the furthest one (flight 69, 705 meters).
“Ingenuity far surpassed expectations, hovering increased and sooner than beforehand imagined,” NASA mentioned in a message accompanying the video. “Designed to be a know-how demonstration that might make not more than 5 take a look at flights in 30 days, Ingenuity ultimately flew greater than 14 instances farther than the space anticipated, and logged greater than two hours of complete flight time.”
The 4-pound, 19-inch-tall helicopter arrived on Mars with the Perseverance in a dramatic touchdown captured in high-definition video. Ingenuity ended up aiding the rover mission by offering aerial imagery that enabled mission specialists on Earth to map the most secure and best routes for Perseverance between areas of scientific curiosity.
Ingenuity’s spectacular achievement has paved the way in which for NASA’s bold Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. For this one, NASA will deploy a a lot bigger drone — the dimensions of a small automotive — to fly between analysis places in a mission set to launch in 2028.
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