We’ve been keeping a close eye on Ingeniuity’s progress here at Universe Today. Following the small helicopter that has not always been easy: with almost 30 registered flights covering more than 7 kilometers and constantly breaking its own record of the longest controlled power flight on another planet, Ingenuity has so far met all expectations. . But it has been difficult to understand how it should feel to fly through the Martian atmosphere, so far.
NASA recently released an impressive video of helicopter flight 25, which took place on April 18th. At the time, the flight was the farthest and fastest that Ingenuity had flown, and it was all captured by the helicopter’s navigation camera. While the video clock is about 35 seconds, the actual flight recorded 161.3 seconds, with the video increased to 5 times the normal speed to make it look smoother.
Ingenious Flight 24 YouTube Recording. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
During the flight, Ingenuity traveled 704 meters on its exploration mission to help Perseverance, his fellow rover, make his way to the dry bed of a lake. It reached a height of 10 meters, the standard height of most of its flights. At this height, the spacecraft was traveling at a reasonable rate of 5.5 m / s, setting a new speed record for the Red Planet and far exceeding Perseverance itself.
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The craft is not over yet, though the pace of the flights has slowed down due to the ubiquitous Martian dust that gradually covered the solar panels of the helicopter. This recently led to the shutdown of the ship’s main computer, although it was eventually reactivated. However, it lost the sync it had previously established with Perseverance, causing the rover to stop scanning while waiting to reconnect. The engineering team is still waiting for the batteries to be charged enough, even with the solar panels covered, to be able to make a few more flights.
Perseverance and ingenuity form a great team together. Credit – NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
But for now, Ingenuity seems to be landing on “Airfield T”, as its current resting place has been known for some time. Even if there is not much hope for another flight at this time, the stunning images and the first series of hits unlocked by the helicopter will remain indefinitely in the record books of human history.
More information: JPL – NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Captures Record Flight NASA – Mars HelicopterUT – Brilliant Helicopters on MarsUT – You can see Ingenuity’s flight to Mars, captured by perseverance
Main image: Still image of the video for Ingenious Flight 24. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
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