Ingenuity Moves Faster Over Mars Than It Ever Did on Earth

During the third flight, the helicopter rose to about the same height it did in the previous run, 16 feet (5 meters), and then set out to move faster than it ever got the chance to move on Earth. According to the space agency, the top speed the thing was able to achieve was 6.6 feet (2 meters) per second; that's around 4.5 mph (7.2 kph).

During its flight, the machine moved for about 164 feet (50 meters) above the Martian dust, as you can see in the video attached below, as captured from the Perseverance rover some distance away.

We said the speed achieved this weekend is faster than anything attempted on Earth. That’s not because Ingenuity was not capable of doing it here, but because the JPL chambers where it was tested in a Mars-like atmosphere were too small to allow it to gain enough speed.

It’s also unlikely it will go much faster, though, as its speed is limited by the need to keep its cameras trained at the surface and capture details that otherwise would be impossible to see. According to MiMi Aung, the helicopter’s project manager at JPL, this weekend’s flight was the first one when the camera algorithm was tested at such speeds.

“Today’s flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing,” said in a statement Dave Lavery, the project’s program executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions.”

Presently NASA is preparing for the fourth flight scheduled for later this week, and now even hints at a possible, proper Mars rotorcraft being developed in the future.