NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has flown once more, taking to the Martian skies for the second time in as many weeks.
Ingenuity traveled about 308 toes (94 meters) on Sunday (Sept. 18), staying aloft for greater than 55 seconds and reaching a most velocity of 10.6 mph (17.1 kph), according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (opens in new tab) (JPL) in Southern California, which manages the Mars helicopter’s mission.
Sunday’s flight was the thirty second for Ingenuity general and its second this month; the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) rotorcraft additionally lifted off on Sept. 6.
Related: Mars helicopter Ingenuity: First aircraft to fly on Red Planet
That earlier flight took Ingenuity nearer to an historical river delta on the ground of Mars’ Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) gap within the floor that the helicopter and its robotic associate, the Perseverance rover, have been exploring since February 2021. Presumably, Sunday’s sortie continued that progress, as Ingenuity staff members have mentioned that attending to the delta is a near-term precedence.
Perseverance has been learning the delta for a number of months now. The car-sized rover has collected 4 rock samples from the formation since July, two of them from a stone that is rich in organic molecules, the carbon-containing constructing blocks of life.
Researchers will be capable to research that intriguing materials intimately right here on Earth, if all goes in line with plan: NASA and the European Space Agency are teaming as much as convey the rover’s samples to our planet, maybe as early as 2033.
The sample-return architecture consists of two Ingenuity-like helicopters able to carrying pattern tubes from a number of depots on Jezero’s flooring to the rocket that may launch them off the Red Planet. (That rocket, and the opposite robots that may assist get the samples to Earth, stay in improvement.) It’s unclear in the intervening time if the choppers shall be pressed into such service; Perseverance could find yourself delivering the tubes to the rocket by itself.
Ingenuity initially launched into a five-flight demonstration mission designed to indicate that rotorcraft flight is feasible within the skinny Martian atmosphere. The helicopter rapidly aced that job and shifted into an prolonged mission, throughout which it is serving as a scout for Perseverance.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
