NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter recently completed its 50th flight. On April 13, this helicopter covered a distance of 322.2 meters in 145.7 seconds. In addition, the helicopter went up to a height of 60 feet, which is also a new record. Director of Planetary Science Lori Glause said – Just as the Wright brothers continued their experiments in their quest to build an airplane, the Ingenuity team continued to learn to pilot and operate the first helicopter on another world.
NASA has shared a video of Ingenuity’s 47th flight. The video was captured on March 9, 2023 by the MastCam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover. At the time of taking the video, the distance between the helicopter and the rover was 394 feet. NASA has said that when this helicopter was flying, dust was spreading all around. During this time, the helicopter flew 440 meters. At the time of landing, this helicopter was not seen on the camera.
Ingenuity would set a new record on every flight. This helicopter reached the red planet in February 2021. It was connected to NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover. It made its maiden flight on 19 April 2021. Soon it will complete two years of its flight. According to NASA, apart from facing more challenging areas, Ingenuity will make more flights in the coming days.
NASA is searching for remnants of life on Mars and taking samples of the rocky planet. This sample has been sealed in a tube and plans are being made to bring it to Earth. The rover had also brought a backup sample tube, but recently dropped it on the planet’s surface. In the future, if there is a problem with removing the sample from the robot, the Ingenuity helicopter robot will collect the tube that has fallen to the ground.
A national (A) class daily newspaper published from Birganj
