Ingenuity's Fourth Flight: Mars Helicopter Mission May Be Extended Than Originally Planned

Since it breathed its first Martian air last month until it carried out its first, second, and third flights, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has proven that a powered, controlled flight is possible on Mars.

According to Phys.org, Ingenuity's new achievement of successfully flying on the Red Planet for the fourth time has gained itself another month and a new mission: to tackle new tough terrain and serve as a scout for the Perseverance rover for its mission of finding signs of microbial life.

That means the four-pound (1.8 kilograms) mini chopper's mission is being extended from the original month-long technology demonstration. Its goal is to assess how well flyers can aid future explorations of the Red Planet and other worlds.

"We're going to gather information on the operational support capability of the helicopter while Perseverance focuses on its science mission," Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division said.

Scientists are hoping for the success of this mission that may prove one day to be useful to human missions by learning the best routes to traverse and reach locations that were not yet explored before.

Ingenuity Aces Its Fourth Flight

NASA officials announced on Friday, April 30, that the Mars helicopter will get a flight extension instead of its original month-long mission after its successful flights in the past two weeks, ABC News reported.

The $85 million tech demo's fourth flight on Friday was completed after traveling 872 feet (266 meters) at a height of 16 feet (5 meters) for two minutes. Although that does not seem long, the fourth flight is considered farther and longer than the previous flight demos. It first attempted its fourth flight on Thursday, but a software error has prevented it.

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter is scheduled for its fifth flight in another week or so, wherein it will travel to a new airfield on Mars.

This is to help the Perseverance rover start focusing on its rock-sampling mission on Jezero Crater, where it will hopefully find signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. The American space agency hopes to collect its first sample in July this year.

ALSO READ: NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter First Flight: How the Rotocraft Lifted Off Martian Atmosphere [WATCH]

Mars Helicopter Mission Might Get Extended

US News reported that the Ingenuity team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California expects to conduct the Mars helicopter's sixth and seventh flight in May, extending the original five flights. They noted that if succeeding flights would go well, the helicopter mission might go even longer.

"Ingenuity loves Mars," project manager MiMi Aung said. "It takes off and I almost feel the freedom that it feels."

However, its limiting factor that chief engineer Bob Balaram predicted could be the helicopter's ability to withstand the extremely cold nights of Mars where temperatures could go down as -130 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 degrees Celsius).

The Mars helicopter was originally designed for a month-long mission with only the solar-powered heater to keep it warm. Engineers are not sure how many freeze and thaw cycles it could survive before something in it breaks.

Nonetheless, they hope that it could survive the freezing Martian nights and repeated flights on the extremely thin atmosphere of the Red Planet for at least a few months.