NASA Helicopter on Mars Reaches Milestone, Successfully Fly 1.6 KM

Suara.com – NASA helicopter from Mars, Ingenuity, reached the milestone by successfully flying a mile across the surface of the Red Planet.

The small helicopter exceeded a mile or 1.6 km of its total flight distance on Saturday (24/7/2021) when it hovered over a rocky region called the Raised Ridges.

It was Ingenuity’s tenth flight on Mars and the highest so far. Its first flight took place in April.

“With the successful flight of the Mars helicopter, we crossed the total distance of one mile flown to date,” wrote officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Space.com, Monday (26/7/2021).

Also Read:
Rare 4.6 Billion Year Old Meteorite Found in Horseshoe Trailjak

This tenth flight was Ingenuity’s most challenging, with 10 different waypoints for the helicopter to traverse as it flew over Raised Ridges.

The helicopter managed to reach a maximum altitude of 12 meters, a new altitude record, and flew about 95 meters.

From takeoff to landing, the entire flight lasts 165.4 seconds.

During the flight, Ingenuity is expected to take a series of images, including imagery that could help scientists create stereo images of the Raised Ridges rock.

The rock is a mission area that experts are considering sending the Perseverance explorer there.

Also Read:
There is no evidence of gas signatures related to traces of life in the atmosphere of Mars

“We will image Raised Ridges because this is an area that scientists find interesting and that Perseverance is considering visiting in the future,” NASA added.

Ingenuity was originally designed as an experimental mission with four test flights, considering it is the first vehicle to attempt to fly on another planet.

The 1.8 kilogram helicopter successfully completed its primary mission and NASA extended its operations.

In this extended phase, Ingenuity is used for reconnaissance looking for locations of interest to Perseverance explorers.

– .