NASA’s Ingenuity mars helicopter was a success after its very first flight, but the tiny chopper has managed to achieve much more than that on the Martian soil. It has now logged 14 flights across the Jezero Crater and is now set for a return journey back to its original takeoff location, called Wright Brothers Field.
Ingenuity will re-unite with its rover buddy Perseverance. It’s a part of a plan to wrap up the ongoing science campaign in an area named Seitah. If everything goes as planned, the two machines will reconvene near the landing location and then embark on a new mission together to another part of the crater.
Return journey to take more flights
The Ingenuity team is working out a series of between four and seven flights for the return journey. “Along the way the project is considering preparing a flight software upgrade for our helicopter which will potentially enable new navigation capabilities onboard, and better prepare Ingenuity for the challenges ahead,” wrote Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity team lead.
The chopper’s 14th flight was a successful short hop designed to test faster rotor speeds that will make up for the seasonal changes in the crater’s atmosphere. The next flight is most likely to take place this week.
Ingenuity creating history with each flight on Mars
The 15th flight is expected to take 130 seconds and ferry the rotorcraft a distance of 406 meters. Ingenuity will capture some images while returning and beam them back to Earth. The chopper’s main aim is to act as a scout for Perseverance. The rover has been collecting samples on the Martian soil to determine if ancient microbial life existed on the Red Planet.
Last month, Perseverance extracted and securely stored its second Martian rock sample. The new sample was collected just days after the first successful attempt. NASA’s JPL that oversees the Mars missions shared the news. This shows that JPL has finally figured out the rover’s sample-collection process after a failed effort in August when the gathered material slipped from the collection tube.
