NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter set a brand new Mars file final month, by the pores and skin of its robotic enamel.
The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity coated 2,315 toes (705 meters) of Pink Planet floor on Dec. 20, in line with the mission’s flight log. The outdated mark was 2,310 toes (704 m), which the little chopper set in April 2022.
Ingenuity reached 22.4 mph (36 kph) throughout the Dec. 20 hop, tying its Martian velocity file.
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Ingenuity landed with NASA’s Perseverance rover in February 2021. Ever since, the 2 robots have been exploring Mars’ Jezero Crater, which harbored a lake and a river delta within the historical previous.
The car-sized Perseverance is looking for indicators of previous Mars life and accumulating samples for future return to Earth, the place the valuable materials might be analyzed in larger element.
Ingenuity was designed to indicate that aerial exploration is feasible on Mars regardless of the planet’s skinny environment. The rotorcraft did that over the course of 5 flights within the spring of 2021. NASA then granted a mission extension, throughout which Ingenuity is serving as a scout for its bigger cousin.
The chopper has now racked up 65 flights on its prolonged mission. The Dec. 20 hop was Ingenuity’s 69th general, and it adopted that one up with one other sortie on Dec. 22.
Ingenuity has coated a complete of about 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) over its 70 Mars flights, in line with the flight log. Perseverance has gone farther; its odometer currently reads 14.744 miles (23.729 km).
Spectacular as that latter quantity is, it is not a Pink Planet file: NASA’s Alternative rover racked up 28.06 miles (45.16 km) throughout its operational life on the Martian floor, which lasted from January 2004 to June 2018.
