The US Space Agency (NASA) announced the success of its “Ingenuity” helicopter in its second mission on Mars, days after its first flight to the red planet.
“The Mars helicopter successfully completed its second flight … and reached new milestones at a higher altitude and a longer and lateral flight,” the agency said in a tweet on its official Twitter account.
How do you top #MarsHelicopter’s historic first flight? Go bigger.
We'll attempt a more challenging 2nd flight on April 22: 50-second flight time, climb to ~16 ft (5m), and 5º tilt to accelerate sideways ~7 ft (2m). We'll update you here with the results. https://t.co/tDmJJNjPPk pic.twitter.com/laAIcL4UgS
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 21, 2021
The agency confirmed that the helicopter ascended to a height of 16 feet above the surface, and flew for a short period, then moved to the side by 7 feet, and took a black and white photo, before landing.
“The helicopter stopped, flew in place, turned to point the camera in different directions and then returned to the center of the airport to land, it seems simple, but there are many unknowns regarding how to drive,” said Havard Gharib, lead pilot of “Ingenuity” at JPL. “A helicopter is on Mars. That is why we are here to make these unknowns known.”
The helicopter took off on schedule at around 10:30 GMT, but due to the delay in obtaining travel data for the 181 million miles between Earth and Mars, its mission was not successfully achieved until 14:44 GMT.
It is noteworthy that flying on Mars represents a great challenge, given the fact that its atmosphere represents only 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere, and gravity is one third of that on Earth, so in order to fly, the helicopter must be light and the wings rotate very quickly. Up to 2,500 rpm.
The “Ingenuity” helicopter made its first historic flight on Mars, on Monday April 19, when it climbed 10 feet and took a picture. The helicopter is scheduled to try to complete four more test flights, including additional distances and higher altitudes, in the next two weeks.