NASA has published a video of the 10th flight of the Martian helicopter Ingenuity, according to Space.com. During the last mission, the rotorcraft climbed to a record height for it of 12 meters and covered a distance of 95 meters. Taking into account the last flight, the device has already covered a distance of more than 1.6 km over the Red Planet.
The last launch of the Ingenuity helicopter took place on July 24. According to the mission team, this flight was the most difficult for him. In its course, Ingenuity performed several maneuvers and reached 10 waypoints. The helicopter flew over the Raised Ridges area, located in the southern part of Jezero Crater, where NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on February 18 this year. The visual data obtained during the flight can assist the rover mission team in plotting a safe route to explore the Raised Ridges. Specialists of the American department call this area “very intriguing”.
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter was designed with only four flights in mind. However, after the device successfully coped with the main part of the mission, the American aerospace agency considered it possible to use it in the future. Moreover, each time the duration and complexity of the flight increases. Ingenuity last spent 165.4 seconds in the Martian sky, just a fraction of a second less than its ninth flight on July 5.
While scientists are studying the data obtained by the helicopter, Ingenuity itself is “resting” at the seventh makeshift Martian airfield.
The main task of the mission of the Perseverance rover is to search for signs of Martian life, as well as collect samples of Martian soil for subsequent delivery to Earth. The device was sent to Mars from Cape Canaveral exactly one year ago, on July 30, 2020.
