It’s been a busy year on Mars for NASA’s ingenuity helicopter, and it’s not going to brake now. After 21 flights, the aircraft is still in excellent condition, so NASA extended its mission until at least September.
Inuit arrived on the red planet with NASA’s Perseverance Rover on February 18, 2021. Its original mission was simply to demonstrate the ability to fly a helicopter in the thin atmosphere of Mars. After three successful flights that proved the technology – and marked the first powered flight on another planet – NASA moved Ingenuity into an operational mode with two more flights. Since then, the helicopter has made 16 flights, further testing its skills while persevering to help navigate the Jezero Crater, but now it’s on a new mission: to discover the Jezero River Delta.
“The Jezero River Delta campaign will be the biggest challenge the Ingenuity team has faced since its first flight to Mars,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity Team Leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a press release.
The region is dangerous for ingenuity and endurance, as it is filled with “hanging rocks, angles, projected boulders, and sand-filled pockets that could stop a rover in its tracks (or stop a helicopter from landing ), “per publication. . But this only gives Ingenuity a greater opportunity to demonstrate its scouting skills. The helicopter’s observations affect not only Perseverance’s future trajectory, but also its scientific missions as it searches for evidence of microbial life on Mars, taking core samples that will one day return to Earth. Plus, Ingenuity Flight data informs the design of the next generation of Mars vehicles.
“Less than a year ago, we did not even know if a powered, controlled flight of an airplane on Mars was possible,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. “Now, we look forward to Ingenuity’s participation in Perseverance’s second science campaign.”
Ingenuity is currently one leg in at least a three-part series of flights that take the plane from its original flight range over a region known as the Séítah, then begin to explore the Jezero River Delta. His next flight can now happen every day.
“This upcoming flight will be my 22nd entry in our logbook,” Ingenuity Chief Pilot Håvard Grip of JPL said in a press release. “I remember thinking when it all started, we’re lucky to have three entries and very lucky to get five. Now, with the rate we’re giving, I need a second book.
Maybe NASA should not be so surprised. The Mars Rovers agency has all the phenomenal life span that far exceeds its original mission duration – sometimes by thousands of Mars soles – so it’s only fair that Ingenuity follows suit.
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