On its most recent flight, the Ingenuity helicopter reached a speed of 23.3 km/h, and reached an altitude of 16 m. He has already traveled more than 11 km on Mars
The Ingenuity helicopter completed its 49th flight on Mars on Sunday (2). This time, the small aircraft broke its own records, flying farther and higher than it had managed before.
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU / Canaltech
During the flight, Ingenuity reached a maximum speed of 23.3 km/h, and reached an altitude of 16 m; before, the speed and height records were 21.6 and 14 m, respectively. In a post on Twitter, NASA brought a photo of Ingenuity, which shows its shadow on the Martian surface:
Two new records for the #MarsHelicopter! Ingenuity successfully completed Flight 49, setting a new flight speed record of 14.5 mph (6.5 m/s) and an altitude record of 52.5 ft (16 meters).
See more stats: https://t.co/7DMHj9LkNX pic.twitter.com/Od4jXGS8QE
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 3, 2023
Ingenuity landed on Mars in February 2021, tethered to the Perseverance rover. Already in April of that year, he held his
historic first flight
, and was sustained in the air for more than 30 seconds; at that time, scientists did not yet know that this would be the first of many flights.
Because Ingenuity was designed to show that it was possible to fly in an atmosphere as thin as that of Mars, it initially made only five flights. It demonstrated such satisfactory performance that NASA brought some extensions to its mission, and now, the aircraft accompanies the Perseverance rover, helping the vehicle’s team to identify dangerous areas and formations of scientific interest.
In its 49 flights made over almost two years, Ingenuity traveled 11.2 km on the Red Planet and stayed in the air for more than 80 minutes.
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