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Brilliant captured this photo during her seventh trip to Mars. Photo: NASA JPL
The seventh flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars saw the rover fly nearly 350 feet to a landing point that had not previously been closely surveyed.
Creativity continues to influence. This test mission, which began on April 3, was only supposed to last 30 days, but it seems that NASA is eager to get as many miles as possible from this tiny plane. It is hard to blame them. Despite the shaky sixth flight, the creativity did remarkably well, showing off the potential of the most ambitious and sophisticated Mars planes.
This last jump was the helicopter’s first since it experienced an anomaly during its sixth flight on May 22, 2021. During that flight, the helicopter’s navigation system malfunctioned due to a single missing tire, causing some worrisome nonsense—jerky movements. Creativity successfully took on the extra time and energy needed to complete the flight, and landed without further accidents.
Fortunately, it does not appear that something went wrong during the seventh flight. NASA JPL announced on Twitter that it was “another successful flight.” An unidentified member of the team stated, “There are no anomalies in Flight 7, creativity is healthy!” No specific date has been set for the seventh flight, except for NASA saying it won’t happen before last Sunday, June 6. The space agency has released one black and white photo taken by Ingenuity during the flight.
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Ingenuity’s seventh jump was just over a minute longer, during which time the 4 lb (1.8 kg) helicopter traveled 348 ft (106 m). He flew south, landing in a completely unfamiliar place. The new airport was selected based on satellite data provided by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which showed it to be flat and clear of obstructions.
No word yet on the eighth flight, but we have no reason to believe it won’t. Indeed, creativity is no worse than erosion. On Twitter, NASA JPL quoted a team member as saying: “There is no sign of aging yet in the operator system. With each flight, we get additional real-world information about the rotor’s performance and thermal properties, allowing us to increase allowable flight times it gradually.” So this is very encouraging. By continuing to push the boundaries of Ingenuity, NASA will be better equipped to design its successor.
NASA’s Perseverance rover recently exceeded 100 Mars days, or Mars days, on Mars. She surveyed the first five creative flights, but now NASA needs less viewing and more science from the rover. So far, Perseverance has tested all of its cameras and instruments and transmitted more than 75,000 images, as well as recording sounds on Mars and generating oxygen from the atmosphere.
From here, Perseverance, along with its trusted friend, will move south towards the next target exploration area.
More: NASA is generating oxygen on Mars, paving the way for manned missions.
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