The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has made its third flight of the yr, which additionally marks its fortieth flight because it landed within the Jezero crater together with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. Regardless of being initially supposed for simply 5 flights and having to climate the Martian winter, the little helicopter continues to be going robust because it comes as much as its second anniversary on the purple planet.
On the helicopter’s fortieth flight, it traveled from an space named Airfield Z to Airfield Beta, on its approach to be part of the Perseverance rover because it explores the Jezero river delta. It can assist scout forward for the rover, figuring out protected routes for the rover to drive because it searches for proof of historical life that might have existed when water was current on the planet’s floor billions of years in the past.
Ingenuity sits on a barely inclined floor with a few 6-degree tilt on the middle of the body, simply north of the southern ridge of “Séíitah” geologic unit. The Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument took this picture on Dec. 1, 2021, when the rotorcraft was about 970 toes (295 meters) away. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
The main points of every Ingenuity flight are recorded within the Flight Log, which reveals how far the flight was when it comes to horizontal distance lined, plus the utmost altitude and most groundspeed that the helicopter achieved, in addition to the flight length and route.
For Flight 40, Ingenuity traveled 584 toes (178 meters) and gained an altitude of 33 toes (10 meters), getting as much as a velocity of three.2 meters per second and staying within the air for simply over 90 seconds.
Whereas Ingenuity is within the air, it takes pictures not solely with its 13-megapixel shade digicam but in addition with its 0.5-megapixel black-and-white navigation digicam. The navigation digicam factors downward towards the floor and is utilized by the helicopter’s onboard laptop to find out its place and altitude. On a typical flight, the helicopter will take a couple of shade pictures however many extra black and white pictures as these are wanted for it to fly accurately.
The entire pictures Ingenuity takes are made publicly obtainable, together with the navigation pictures. So when you ever needed to see what Mars seems like from the attitude of a helicopter, you may browse the gallery right here. The gallery for the latest flight is right here, with 10 black and white and two shade pictures obtainable.
Right now’s tech information, curated and condensed on your inbox
Examine your inbox!
Please present a sound e mail tackle to proceed.
This e mail tackle is presently on file. If you’re not receiving newsletters, please test your spam folder.
Sorry, an error occurred throughout subscription. Please attempt once more later.
Editors’ Suggestions