Ingenuity, a NASA helicopter, completes its 50th flight

Photo Credit: Astronomy Magazine The brave Ingenuity chopper from NASA has finished its 50th mission on Mars. To commemorate the anniversary, NASA published a movie (top) highlighting some of the most significant events of Ingenuity's journey to date. JPL posted on its website on Thursday, April 13, that Ingenuity has completed its 50th flight. The journey took 145.7 seconds for the 4-pound, 19-inch-tall aircraft to cover more than 1,057 feet (322.2 meters). Before landing close to the half-mile-wide (800-meter-wide) Belva Crater, it set a new altitude record of 59 feet (18 meters). Photo Credit: Yahoo News The accomplishment is noteworthy on a number of levels. A maximum of five flights were anticipated for Ingenuity when it arrived on Mars two years ago, making it the only aircraft to have ever flown on another planet. Ingenuity's team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was inspired by the craft's remarkable capacity to withstand the hostile environment and thin Martian air, and they pushed it higher, faster, and further during subsequent flights. They even used the craft's onboard camera to support Perseverance, the ground-based rover that landed on Mars alongside Ingenuity in 2021. The JPL team is now considering another Ingenuity repositioning trip before visiting the Fall River Pass region of Jezero Crater, a dried lake bed where Perseverance is looking for signs of prehistoric life. According to Lori Glaze, head of NASA's Planetary Science Division, "just as the Wright brothers continued their experiments well after that historic day at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Ingenuity team continues to pursue and learn from the flight operations of the first aircraft on another world." Also Read: On Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity chopper breaks two records for flying The NASA chopper has now traveled more than 7.1 miles (11.6 kilometers) and flown for more than 89 minutes. Recently, one of its fastest flights surpassed 15 mph, and in April 2022, the aircraft went 2,325.8 feet (708.9 meters) on one trip. The Perseverance team has been able to design the safest paths for the rover to take as it negotiates the treacherous terrain of the red planet thanks to data collected during its flights. However, the team has acknowledged that some of Ingenuity's components are starting to show symptoms of wear, and it understands that any revolutionary mission will eventually come to an end. Photo Credit: Republic World Teddy Tzanetos, the lead of JPL's Ingenuity team, remarked, "We have come so far, and we want to go farther." But we were aware from the start that our time on Mars was short, so each day that we are able to operate is a blessing. Nobody can say for sure yet if Ingenuity's mission will conclude tomorrow, next week, or in a few months. We'll have a magnificent party when it happens, I can assure you of that.