‘Faster and farther away’: NASA helicopter makes third flight to Mars | Space News

NASA says the invention helicopter travels at a speed of 50 meters per second on a third flight to Mars.

The U.S. space agency’s Ingenuity helicopter has made its third flight to Mars, flying “faster and farther” than any test flight on Earth.

In one statement on Sunday, NASA said the helicopter traveled 50 meters (164 feet) at a speed of two meters per second (6.6 feet per second).

It was the third flight of ingenuity since it made history first jump on the Red Planet earlier this month.

“Today’s flight was what we planned, and yet it was amazing,” said Dave Lavery, executive of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter program at NASA’s Washington, DC headquarters.

In February the invention arrived on Mars in the Perseverance rover, after a seven-month journey from Earth.

The initial flight took place on March 19 in March marked the first flight of motor aircraft from another planet.

NASA said on Sunday that most of the helicopter’s 80-second flight, captured by Ingenuity’s cameras, would be sent to Earth in the coming days.

The third flight of history books✅
Ours #MarsHelicopter the record continues to set, flying faster and farther. The shrinking space is showing critical capabilities that will allow it to add an air dimension to future missions to Mars and beyond. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/Uaxrr23Rfh

– NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 25, 2021

The helicopter will also make its fourth flight on Mars soon, the space agency said.

Flights are difficult due to the unique conditions on the planet because of the rare Martian atmosphere, which is less than 1 percent of Earth’s density.

The intelligence experiment will end in a month to return Perseverance to its main task: to look for signs of life in the microbes of the past on Mars.

Last week, NASA said it had achieved another first mission to Mars, after converting carbon dioxide into Mars’ atmosphere into pure, breathable oxygen.

He managed to extract unprecedented oxygen on Tuesday on the Perseverance ship.