NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew for the 31st time on Mars, making a short leap that brought it closer to the ancient Red Planet’s river delta.
during the Mars The sortie, which took place on Tuesday (September 6), weighed 4 pounds (1.8 kg). cleverness It flew for approximately 56 seconds and covered about 318 feet (97 meters) of horizontal distance, according to Record the mission team trip (Opens in a new tab).
The flight took ingenuity toward the remnants of a long-drying river delta that was the small helicopter’s robotic partner, NASA perseverance roverhas been explored within the past five months or so.
Related: Mars Helicopter: The first plane to fly on the Red Planet
In February 2021, creativity and persistence descended together inside the 28-mile (45 kilometer) wide Jezero Crater, which harbored a river delta and a large lake billions of years ago.
Perseverance is looking for old signs Mars life collecting rock samples Back to Earth in the future. Creativity acts as a scout, and helps the perseverance team choose the best driving paths and set rocky, scientifically promising goals.
This is not the role that was originally assigned to Ingenuity; It is a technical demonstration designed for a five-flight mission to show that helicopter flight is possible in Mars atmospherewhich is only 1% as thick as the Earth at sea level.
Dexterity overtook that major assignment and was soon granted an extension to perform her current, more focused reconnaissance work.
Tuesday’s trip was the first for prowess since 33 seconds on August 20 which covers only 6.5 feet (2 m) of the land of Mars. The August 20 flight is primarily designed to get the dust off Ingenuity’s solar panels and ensure that the tiny robot is still in flight after two months of relative inactivity.
was creativity On the ground since June 11Awaiting cold and dusty winter weather on Jezero floor.
Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Great Grand Publishing House, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrials. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab) or on Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
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