NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Continues To Fly Until September After Capturing Over 2,000 Photos

After capturing more than 2000 images of Mars, NASA Ingenuity's flying days have been extended.

Ingenuity was created to map out possible pathways for the six-wheeled Perseverance rover. It looks for traces of ancient, microscopic life in Mars' 45-kilometer-wide Jezero crater.

NASA Ingenuity Helicopter To Fly Until September

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently revealed that the small Martian helicopter may now fly until at least September.

Ingenuity will receive some additional enhancements as part of this extension, allowing the 4-pound (1.8 kilos) drone to do even more adventurous flights in support of the Perseverance rover mission, which landed with it in February 2021.

Håvard Grip, the Ingenuity chief pilot, said in a JPL statement: "I remember thinking when this all started, we'd be lucky to have three [flight] entries and immensely fortunate to get five. Now, at the rate we're going, I'm going to need a second [log]book."

Perseverance will be tasked with examining the remains of the river delta inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater, where the rover landed. Scientists expect to find signs of life on the planet as part of Ingenuity's new extended mission.

On the other hand, Space.com said Ingenuity would have to finish a complicated flight plan that includes new software updates to get there.

The craft will travel around a quarter of a mile (1,150 feet or 350 meters) on its 22nd trip, which is slated to take place no early than March 19.

It will also do a steep mid-air spin to negotiate around a big hill. After then, at least two or three additional flights will be required to reach the delta, according to JPL.

After landing in the delta, Ingenuity will assist engineers in determining which of two dry river channels to direct Perseverance operations and prospective scientific objectives.

According to JPL, if all goes well, the helicopter might be used to observe geologic structures that Perseverance can't reach on the ground. It could also be helpful in locating landing zones and cache sites for a future sample-return mission.

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(Photo : NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured this shot as it hovered over the Martian surface on April 19, 2021, during the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet. It used its navigation camera, which autonomously tracks the ground during flight.

Ingenuity Chopper in Numbers

Meanwhile, New Scientist said NASA's Ingenuity chopper had taken over 2200 images of the planet since arriving on Mars a little over a year ago.

Ingenuity has two cameras: a 0.3-megapixel black-and-white navigational camera and a 13-megapixel color camera comparable to that of a smartphone.

Reports added that Ingenuity has also completed its 21st journey on the planet, covering 370 meters in 129 seconds. Since its initial flight in April 2021, the helicopter has gone about 4.6 kilometers.

Perseverance has saved some time thanks to the information offered by Ingenuity.

Matt Golombek, a senior research scientist at JPL who has been involved with Mars landers dating back to Mars Pathfinder, said earlier this month the chopper was able to shave several sols, if not a week, off the rover's time schedule. A sol is a Martian day that lasts roughly 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth.

Justin Simon, a planetary scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center who works on the Perseverance mission, said during a conference session on March 7 per SpaceNews: "I was really impressed with how well it worked and how useful it's been."

Other Perseverance scientists believed that Ingenuity had been beneficial.

Another Perseverance scientist, Keyron Hickman-Lewis of the Natural History Museum in the United Kingdom, indicated that Ingenuity had been particularly useful during the conference session as Perseverance navigated the Sétah area. He described the region's topography as "not ideal for a rover.

Perseverance will continue its job in the following weeks as it travels to the ruins of a river delta. "The goal is to keep the helicopter out in ahead of the rover so that it may deliver advance information that will aid in its investigation," Golombek explained. It involves exploring routes into the delta for the rover and finding rocks for the rover's sensor suite to analyze.

After over a year of flying on Mars, Ingenuity has exhibited no signs of wear and tear. In fact, the team has seen no signs of deterioration or loss on the helicopter and said it is good as new.