NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter exceeds two hours of flight on Mars

The Ingenuity helicopter POT on Mars has surpassed the milestone of flying for two hours in the tenuous atmosphere of the Red Planet, on the occasion of its 67th flight.

The flight took place on December 2, after resuming communications with Earth with the end of the period of interposition of the Sun between our planet and Mars.

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Ingenuity flew 393 meters for more than two minutes, putting the flight time counter at 121.1 minutes since its arrival at the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater in February 2021 alongside the Perseverance rover. The flight altitude was 12 meters and the speed was 5.3 meters per second.

The helicopter was repositioned to prepare for future flights, reports JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), which operates Ingenuity, the first powered aircraft with controlled flight on another world, in its X account.

The aircraft, which contributes with its images to plan Perseverance’s surface exploration, has traveled a total of 15.3 kilometers in the tenuous atmosphere of Mars, which is less than 1 percent the density of Earth’s.

Ingenuity is half a meter tall and weighs 1.8 kilos. It has six lithium-ion batteries that are charged with solar energy. Its four carbon fiber blades are arranged in two rotors that spin in opposite directions at around 2,400 rpm, much faster than a helicopter on Earth.

Source: Elcomercio

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