Mini Helicopter Ingenuity Completes Fourth Flight on Mars Yet | Abroad

The 1.8 kilo Ingenuity (Ingenuity) was tasked with flying 133 meters in a southerly direction and, among other things, to take photos of a possible new landing site. This will be the final destination of the next trip on the red planet, where the air pressure is already very low just above the surface.

NASA has now decided not to stop at those five air journeys to Mars. Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries, Ingenuity’s mission is extended by an additional 30 days. “After that period, we will see how we are doing,” said spokesman Lori Glaze at a press conference. “There is a possibility that we will continue even longer.”

For the Mars helicopter, which was on board the NASA cart Perseverance (Perseverance), conditions on Mars are extreme. The rotors have to make more than 2500 revolutions per minute through the rarefied atmosphere, roughly 1 percent of that on Earth, to lift off the ground. In addition, the solar energy is lower and the batteries suffer from the low temperatures at night, when the mercury can drop to 90 degrees below zero.

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