The Martian helicopter has already flown almost a couple of kilometers and climbed to a record height

Exploration of Mars is in full swing, and the first aircraft on Mars, Ingenuity, has once again proved its high efficiency in the course of scientific work. So the drone has already completed ten flights and flew 1838 meters in total, and also reached a record speed and climbed to a record height.

In-flight photograph of the Ingenuity drone taken by the left navigation camera of the Perseverance rover (Navcam) ./ © NASA, JPL-Caltech

The drone and its unusual mission

So a product that was originally conceived as just a demonstrator of technology and in theory should only have taken off on Mars, does not even think about stopping his research mission.

Last April, Ingenuity flew four flights at a makeshift site that has come to be known as the Wright Brothers Airfield. After that, the flight mission was decided to be expanded and, starting on May 7, flights were resumed.

So by July 5, the device flew 1605 meters in 133 sol (the so-called Martian days) from the beginning of the mission, and it is this flight that is still the longest for all time and amounted to 625 meters.

The tenth flight was also one of the longest, about 2 minutes and 45 seconds, but the drone covered only 233 meters.

But during this flight, a new Martian record was set, because Ingenuity rose to a height of 12 meters, and before that it did not rise above 6 meters. But all these technical achievements are inherently secondary, the main thing is that during these flights the scientists received valuable scientific data.

So during the 9-10th flight, Ingenuity recorded the geological formations of the Seitah Raised Ridges, and scientists received valuable color images of these formations from different sides and close.

For such pictures, no one would let the Perseverance rover down, because on its way there are sections with sand and stones, on which the rover could get bogged down for quite a long time, and even in general get stuck.

And for Ingenuity, all these features of the local landscape do not interfere at all, but if the fixed object with the help of a drone turns out to be extremely curious, then again with the help of a helicopter, scientists will be able to find the safest route for rover.

At the moment, Ingenuity has moved away from its "companion" Perseveranse rover by 300 meters and the drone has almost tripled exceeded the planned service life (about 30 sols) and during all this time has already taken 43 color photographs and 809 monochrome frames.

And there is no doubt that NASA engineers will continue to carry out Ingenuity research flights for a long time to come. After all, the JPL company, which created Ingenuity, is true to its principles and has created the most reliable device that works radically longer than the planned service life.

So the same company created Spirit, as well as Opportunity, which were supposed to work for about three months, and finally failed only after 6 and 15 years, respectively.

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