Photo: Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Successfully Completes 9th, Most Challenging Flight - NASA
20:43 GMT 05.07.2021 (Updated: 13:19 GMT 06.08.2022)
© AFP 2023 / NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Ingenuity Mars helicopter has successfully completed its ninth and most challenging mission so far, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported on Monday.
"#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," the spacecraft's developer tweeted.
The tweet was accompanied by a photo of Ingenuity’s shadow captured by its navigation camera.
#MarsHelicopter pushes its Red Planet limits. 🚁
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) July 5, 2021
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
The Mars helicopter has surpassed the original expectations of its creators after successfully dealing with increasingly complex tasks. This time, the craft flew about 625 meters (0.4 miles) at the fastest speed since the beginning of the experiments in April.
According to NASA, the experiments with Ingenuity are critical to understanding the future of transportation on Mars. Presumably, flying is the most reliable and fastest way to travel around the planet.
