Ingenuity originally planned to operate for 30 days on Mars to demonstrate NASA technology and see if powered flight could be carried out on Mars.
READ: NASA successfully flies the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars
However, with the success of three previous flight tests, NASA decided to extend the Ingenuity mission for 30 Mars days.
During the extension period, NASA was more ambitious by turning it into a demonstration operation phase that would test the helicopters’ additional capabilities.
” Ingenuity now entering a new operational demonstration phase, our team is very excited and proud, “said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Space.com, Tuesday (4/5/2021).
“It is like Ingenuity passing from the demo test phase to a new demo stage, where we can show that how the helicopter can be used,” he continued.
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Aung spoke as his team awaited news from Ingenuity about its fourth Mars flight, which took place some time ago. The flight was a success, being the fastest and furthest from Ingenuity.
NASA assesses performance Ingenuity very satisfying and according to them this helicopter mission can be continued without disturbing the objectives of Perseverance.
Perseverance will maintain a greater distance from Ingenuity during the new flight phase, but according to the NASA team the two will still be able to communicate well. In addition, Perseverance will not document Ingenuity’s flights on future missions.
The reason for the flight Ingenuity so far still needing the Perseverance rover to stay close by. Perseverance will capture images during flight and serve as a communication link between Ingenuity and mission control on Earth.
After making its fourth flight, Ingenuity will prepare for a fifth test flight which is scheduled to take approximately a week.
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