NASA’s ‘drone’ helicopter on Mars. Incredible. BTW- we are going to land astronauts there within <> 10 years. See next SpaceX Starship full scale launch scheduled August 31st! https://t.co/ZYYGkXDmsq
— Brian Smith (@smithwbrian68) August 19, 2023
VIA MASHABLE:
Flying on Mars presents a major challenge.
The Martian surface air density is only about one percent of Earth’s, making it difficult for craft to produce the lift necessary to fly. Yet NASA‘s experimental Ingenuity helicopter was designed to create lift with its rotors under such unique conditions. Using a four-foot wingspan, the robot has now flown over 50 times — though the space agency only expected it to last for five flights.
NASA’s car-sized Perseverance rover recently captured footage of the helicopter’s entire 54th flight in early August. After Ingenuity experienced a flight anomaly, causing it to promptly land, NASA ran this aerial test to make sure the navigation system still worked properly — which it does.
On the far bottom of the video, at about 5 seconds in, Ingenuity fires up its rotors. At 15 seconds in, the robot takes off. It hovers 16 feet in the Martian air before touching down. All 46 seconds can be watched below:
Perseverance captured this clear shot from 180 feet away. Along with its trusty sidekick, Ingenuity, the rover is scouring rocks and soil for biosignatures — “an object, substance, and/or pattern whose origin specifically requires a biological agent,” the space agency explained.
“A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life,” NASA wrote.
