Story at a glance
- NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has completed its ninth and most challenging flight.
- Ingenuity broke records, traveling for 166.4 seconds at a pace of 5 meters per second.
- It undertook a “high-speed flight across unfriendly terrain” including high slopes.
NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has completed its most challenging flight yet, breaking records along the way.
NASA announced on Monday that Ingenuity’s ninth flight was a success, as it undertook a “high-speed flight across unfriendly terrain.”
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Ingenuity flew for 166.4 seconds at a pace of 5 meters per second over a terrain of high slopes — all new records for the helicopter.
#MarsHelicopter pushes its Red Planet limits.
The rotorcraft completed its 9th and most challenging flight yet, flying for 166.4 seconds at a speed of 5 m/s. Take a look at this shot of Ingenuity’s shadow captured with its navigation camera. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/zUIbrr7Qw9— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) July 5, 2021
In preparation for the flight, NASA said, “First, we believe Ingenuity is ready for the challenge, based on the resilience and robustness demonstrated in our flights so far. Second, this high-risk, high-reward attempt fits perfectly within the goals of our current operational demonstration phase. A successful flight would be a powerful demonstration of the capability that an aerial vehicle (and only an aerial vehicle) can bring to bear in the context of Mars exploration – traveling quickly across otherwise untraversable terrain while scouting for interesting science targets.”
Ingenuity took its first flight on April 19, 2021.
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