Last year, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made a historic flight to the Red Planet. He recently beat a new one
Flying on a rotorcraft, like the Ingenuity helicopter,on Earth are not difficult. But conditions on the Red Planet make things complicated. Gravity on Mars is three times weaker than on our planet, and the density of the atmosphere is about 1% of the density of the Earth. The problem is aggravated by the fact that radio signals reach Mars in 12 minutes, which means Ingenuity must be autonomous, without human control .
In total, Ingenuity rose into the sky 35 times,covered 7 400 m and flew for almost 60 minutes. However, he had not previously reached the record height of 14 meters during a 52-second walk on December 3. The flight took place as part of an exercise to change the positioning of the helicopter.
An all-time high for the #MarsHelicopter!
Ingenuity completed Flight 35 over the weekendand set a new max altitude record, hitting 46 ft (14 meters) above the Martian surface. See more stats in the flight log: https://t.co/7DMHj9LkNX pic.twitter.com/qAj5H9Z68C— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 6, 2022
NASA scientists recently installed an updatesoftware that helps Ingenuity better avoid landing hazards and use digital elevation maps to navigate. This will improve its functionality.
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