A 12 months after finishing the primary powered and managed flight on one other world, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter remains to be setting data on Mars.
The chopper not too long ago hit a pair of latest milestones: its farthest and quickest ever flights on the purple planet.
The rotorcraft traveled 704 meters at a pace of 19 kmph on its landmark twenty fifth flight.
Greetings humanoids
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Which may not win a Grand Prix on Earth, but it surely’s fairly spectacular on Mars. The purple planet’s ambiance is lower than 1% as dense as ours, and its temperature can plunge to minus 130 levels.
NASA this week shared a black-and-white film of the journey, which came about on April 8.
“For our record-breaking flight, Ingenuity’s downward-looking navigation digicam supplied us with a panoramic sense of what it might really feel like gliding 33 toes above the floor of Mars at 12 miles per hour,” stated Ingenuity’s crew lead Teddy Tzanetos.
You’ll be able to watch the feat by clicking on the video atop this text.
You might discover that the video is shorter than the flight stats recommend.
In an obvious nod to our declining consideration spans, NASA sped the 161.3-second flight up round 5 instances — lowering the clip to a succinct 35 seconds.
The footage begins about one second into the flight.
Ingenuity first climbs 10 meters above the Martian floor, earlier than accelerating to its prime pace in below three seconds.
Heading southwest, the chopper flies over sand ripples, rock fields, and eventually flat terrain, the place it lands.
Your complete flight is autonomous. NASA’s boffins plan the route and ship instructions to the Perseverance Mars rover, which then relays the directions to Ingenuity.
After taking off, the helicopter depends on onboard sensors to navigate the panorama.
The brand new data aren’t the final of Ingenuity’s ambitions. After not too long ago dropping communications for the primary time within the mission, NASA this month re-established contact with the drone.
Ingenuity is now making ready for operations throughout the harsh Martian winter.
At this charge, the plucky drone will stay lengthy sufficient to welcome Elon Musk’s indentured laborers to their hellish lives on Mars.
