NASA has made great progress on behalf of the scientific world, thanks to the technologies it used in its Mars mission. Particularly, the Ingenuity helicopter, which is in the Perseverance reconnaissance vehicle, collects data by flying and can transmit what it sees to the world, performed above expectations.
Ingenuity, which has made a total of 18 flights in the past period, had to take a short break from its duties due to dust storms in the past period. But today, he made the first flight of 2022, smashing his record.
Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues its mission
The Perseverance rover, which NASA used on its mission to Mars, enabled Ingenuity to take off from the ground 19 times, with today’s flight, during its mission, which started in February 2021. The helicopter, which started duty in the southern Séítah basin, made its way to the Jezero river delta.
Images captured by onboard cameras will be used to establish Perseverance’s route to the Jezero river delta as part of the mission team’s ongoing mission to search for evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars.
Ingenuity was scheduled to make its first flight of the year in early January. However, a dust storm on the Martian surface caused the mission team to temporarily suspend the planned flight. Of course, NASA states that the first steps taken in unknown areas may involve similar risks, so they are prepared.
Since Mars has a thinner atmosphere and weaker gravity compared to Earth, tiny particles driven by the planet’s winds can easily turn into dust storms so severe that they can last for weeks and even cover the entire planet.
The Mars helicopter Ingenuity made history in April 2021 as the first aircraft to perform a controlled and powered flight on another planet. Its longest single flight to date was 625 meters over the red planet.
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