NASA’s Creativity Helicopter has set a new Mars surface flyby record.
And while most of Ingenuity’s 35 helicopter flights to the Red Planet reached a maximum altitude of 33 feet, the weekly flight of a similar device for a drone surpassed the current record of 39 feet achieved on three separate flights lo last year.
Digitartlends reports that the information reached Mars with NASA’s Perseverance rover during a spectacular descent captured in a popular video in February 2021.
After two months of ground testing, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to achieve power flight and take over another country with the aircraft remaining 10 feet off the ground for the 39th time. Its longest flight to date to date it has been 2,325 meters on a mission in April 2022.
Although the helicopter was only sent to Mars to test the possibility of using such a machine for future missions to Earth, the intelligence was so successful that NASA began using it to support Earth exploration while trying evidence of ancient life on Earth.
The aircraft assists by using a ground view camera to scan an area of interest for endurance testing.
The space station also allows the team to use the imagery to determine the safest and most efficient routes for Perseverance to take as they navigate the rocky terrain to various research sites.
Creativity’s journey came 11 days after the spacecraft set another record for the shortest flight in Mars history when it flew 16 feet off the ground for just 18 seconds.
The project provided the team with the opportunity to test new skills, in particular to avoid crashes during landing and update digital maps to facilitate navigation.
