NASA's Mars Helicopter Sets New Flight Altitude Record

December 07, 2022 By Monica Green

(Image Credit Google)

On Saturday, NASA's resourceful Ingenuity chopper broke the previous flight altitude record on Mars. The 4-pound, 19-inch-tall device traveled 49 feet and reached a height of 46 feet above the martian surface during a 52-second mission. The weekend outing by the drone-like gadget broke the previous record of 39 feet, which was obtained on three different flights last year, despite the fact that the majority of Ingenuity's 35 flights on Mars have reached a high altitude of 33 feet. In February 2021, Ingenuity made a stunning landing on Mars with NASA's Perseverance rover. The event was captured on high-definition video.

An all-time high for the #MarsHelicopter! Ingenuity completed Flight 35 over the weekend and set a new max altitude record, hitting 46 ft (14 meters) above the Martian surface. See more stats in the flight log: https://t.co/7DMHj9LkNX pic.twitter.com/qAj5H9Z68C
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 6, 2022

Following a period of ground-based testing, Ingenuity accomplished powered, controlled flight on an alien planet two months later with a 39-second hover 10 feet in the air. In a mission in April 2022, it traveled 2,325 feet, which was its longest flight to date. Ingenuity functioned so well that NASA began using it to support the ground-based Perseverance rover as it looks for signs of prehistoric life on the planet, even though the helicopter was only intended to test the possibility of employing such a device for future planetary missions. Also, Read: SAAB Shows Combat power of MSHORAD air defence system very first time The airplane assists by looking for interesting spots for Perseverance to explore using its downward-facing camera. The team may also use the imagery from the aerial vantage point to determine Perseverance's safest and most effective pathways as it travels across the stony surface to various exploration spots. [caption id="attachment_69462" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Mars Helicopter

Image: NASA[/caption] The flying machine broke a different record for the shortest flight in Mars aviation history when it hovered 16 feet above the ground for just 18 seconds 11 days before Ingenuity's record-breaking mission. But the trip was significant because it allowed the team to test two new tools: hazard avoidance for landings and digital elevation maps for navigation.

By Monica Green

I am specialised in latest tech and tech discoveries.

NASA's Mars Helicopter Sets New Flight Altitude Record

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