Key Takeaways
- The Ingenuity helicopter completed its 67th flight, marking a new record for aerial missions on Mars.
- Each flight reaches up to 12 meters altitude and covers nearly 400 meters, demonstrating sustained powered flight.
- The missions are conducted from NASA’s Perseverance rover in the Jezero Crater.
- Data from these flights helps validate future planetary aerial technology.
Los Angeles: NASA’s Mars helicopter completed its 67th flight on the Red Planet over the weekend, the agency said on Monday.
The helicopter reached an altitude of 12 meters and traveled 393 meters for more than two minutes on Saturday, according to NASA.
The helicopter, named Ingenuity, arrived at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover.
The helicopter is a technology demonstration to test powered flight on another planet for the first time.
The helicopter was designed to fly for up to 90 seconds, to distances of almost 300 meters at a time and about 3 to 4.5 meters from the ground, according to NASA.
