NASA’S Ingenuinity helicopter has just completed its 25th flight on Mars, marking a momentous event – and you can watch it.
On April 8, Ingenuity – a helicopter Nasa deployed to explore the Red Planet’s surface – reached a new milestone on video.
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The tiny chopper flew its 25th flight after being predicted to only fly five times while on Mars.
Although this isn’t super uncommon for Nasa’s instruments, this flight was important for other reasons as well.
For starters, Ingenuity broke records for both distance and speed traveled.
Specifically, it reached up to 2,310 feet with speeds of up to 12 miles per hour.
Second, the instrument was able to take and send back images of the flight, which lasted 161.3 seconds.
“For our record-breaking flight, Ingenuity’s downward-looking navigation camera provided us with a breathtaking sense of what it would feel like gliding 33 feet above the surface of Mars at 12 miles per hour,” said engineer and Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In the video, Ingenuity reaches an altitude of 108 feet and then began accelerating towards the southwest.
The helicopter then reaches a maximum speed of 12 miles per second within three seconds as it soared over Mars’ sandy and rocky fields.
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Towards the end of the video, the gadget flew over relatively flat ground, on which Ingenuity could make a safe landing, per Science Alert.
Scientists set the flight parameters before the flight, but once Ingenuity is in flight, it moves autonomously due to the time lag between Earth and Mars.
The helicopter was initially launched on July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Nearly seven months later, it landed at Jezero Crater, Mars on February 18, 2021.
Ingenuity caught a ride to Mars via the Perseverance rover.
Its main job is to provide “a technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars,” per Nasa.
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