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Tiny Ingenuity Helicopter That Could is Going for Flight No. 35 on Another World

Back in February of last year, NASA landed the Perseverance rover in the Jezero Crater on Mars. With it landed our hopes of finding traces of life there, past or present, but also a helicopter meant to demonstrate sustained powered flight in the thin local atmosphere is possible.
Ingenuity Mars helicopter rendering 6 photos
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ingenuity snapped an image of the Martian terrain during Flight 33Ingenuity snapped an image of the Martian terrain during Flight 33Ingenuity snapped an image of the Martian terrain during Flight 33Ingenuity snapped an image of the Martian terrain on Oct 18Ingenuity snapped an image of the Martian terrain during Flight 33
The helicopter, called Ingenuity, is tiny compared with other machines of its kind, weighing just 4 pounds (1.8 kg). It moves thanks to rotors 4 feet (1.2 meters) long from tip to tip, and is powered by lithium-ion batteries that get their juice from solar panels.

It was designed to fly for just 90 seconds at a time in the thin Martian atmosphere (which is just 1 percent that of Earth), and to distances of 980 feet (300 meters), while moving up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) off the ground.

It did all this 34 times until now, first on April 19, 2021, flying for a total of 59 minutes and traveling a total distance of over 24,000 feet (7 km) since. The highest altitude it reached was 39 feet (12 meters), and the top speed was 12.3 mph (20 kph).

Some of those numbers may change during flight 35, planned no earlier than December 3. NASA is targeting a flight duration of 52.22 seconds and a distance of 50 feet (15 meters). It also plans to raise the thing 46 feet (14 meters) into the Martian atmosphere.

The really impressive thing about all this is that the helicopter will fly, as usual, with minimal remote input. Just a few commands are sent from Earth in advance, and Ingenuity has to perform the entire flight on its own.

You can find the full list of previous Mars helicopter flights, as well as a trove of other cool info about the machine, at this link.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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