The last flight took place a few days ago
On Sunday, September 3, the 1.8 kg Ingenuity helicopter flew for the 57th time, covering a distance of 217 m in 129 seconds. This increased Ingenuity’s cumulative flight time on Mars to 102.4 minutes, according to the mission’s flight log.
In February 2021, the Perseverance rover landed inside the 45 km wide Jezero Crater. Perseverance is searching for signs of ancient Martian life at the bottom of Jezero, where a large lake and river delta were located billions of years ago. He is collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth.
Ingenuity flew over 100 minutes on Mars. It will be followed by larger and more functional helicopters
Ingenuity’s initial mission was to show that aerial exploration of Mars was even possible. The small helicopter successfully completed this mission after a month-long campaign of five flights. NASA then extended the mission.
Ingenuity’s success will pave the way for future Mars helicopters. NASA plans to send two Ingenuity-type helicopters to the lander, which will deliver samples collected using Perseverance. The agency is working on larger, more capable helicopters that could explore Mars on their own, collecting data in hard-to-reach places and covering large swathes of the Red Planet.
