– After several failed flight trials, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter finally managed to fly for the fourth time on the Red Planet on Friday (30/4) local time.
The flight this time is designed to be more ambitious than before. The reason is, NASA wants to be more challenging to what extent this mini helicopter can fly, as reported by NASA’s official website, Saturday (1/5).
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In that fourth flight, NASA is aiming for longer flight times, longer distances and more shots to begin showing its reconnaissance capabilities on Mars.
Ingenuity rises to an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) before flying south and back on an 872 feet (266 meters) round trip.
In total, Ingenuity is in the air for 117 seconds. This is the longest running record for this helicopter. The fourth flight took off from and returned to “Wright Brothers Field” in Jezero Crater, Mars.
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The Ingenuity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California determined the flight was successful after receiving data from helicopters and imagery from the Mars Perseverance rover.
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NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter will become the first aircraft in history to conduct powered and controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021.
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