Ingenuity covered 64 feet in its third flight and achieved a speed of 6.6 feet per second (two meters per second) or four miles per hour.
Ingenuity Helicopter (Twitter)
US space agency NASA’s mini helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its third flight on Mars on Sunday. This time, compared to the first two flights, Ingenuity flew more distances and at a much faster speed. Ingenuity reached a high speed of 6.6 feet per second in the third flight. Scientists did not face much trouble in flying Ingenuity this time as compared to the first two flights. Explain that this helicopter has been sent to Mars through Perseverance rover.
Ingenuity covered 64 feet in its third flight and caught a speed of 6.6 feet per second (two meters per second) or four miles per hour. Dave Lavry, the program executive of the Ingenuity Project, said, “Today’s flight was as we had planned and it was nothing short of amazing.” NASA’s Perversance Rover has brought this 1.8 kg helicopter to the surface of Mars. Rover videoed Ingenuity’s 80-second flight. NASA has said that this video clip will be sent to Earth in the coming days.
Why is it challenging to fly an Ingenuity helicopter to the surface of Mars?
This flight was a test of the helicopter’s autonomous navigation system. NASA said in a statement issued about the flight that flight algorithms would not be able to track surface characteristics if Ingenuity flies faster. Ingenuity helicopter flights are very challenging, the reason behind this is because the atmosphere of Mars is completely different from the Earth’s atmosphere. The density of the atmosphere of Mars is only one percent of that of our Earth. This means that four feet of rotors in Ingenuity have to rotate 2400 every minute. This is five times the rotation of the rotors of a helicopter on Earth.
Rover will gather in search of ancient life
NASA has announced that it is now preparing for the fourth flight of the Ingenuity helicopter. Each flight is planned in such a way that it checks the limits of Ingenuity. Ingenuity testing will be over in a month. After this, the Perversance Rover will start a search for the ancient life on Mars near the Jagero crater. It is believed that microorganisms may be present on the surface of Mars.
Also read: Ever seen dust flying on Mars! Watch amazing video of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter from Red Planet
.