NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter sets new distance record on the Red Planet

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter set a brand-new Mars record last month, by the skin of its robotic teeth.

The 4-pound (1.8 kgs) Resourcefulness covered 2,315 feet (705 meters) of Red Planet ground on Dec. 20, according to the objective’s flight logThe old mark was 2,310 feet (704 m), which the little chopper embeded in April 2022.

Resourcefulness reached 22.4 miles per hour (36 kph) throughout the Dec. 20 hop, connecting its Martian speed record.

Associated: Mars helicopter Ingenuity phones home, breaking 63-day silence

Resourcefulness landed with NASA’s Determination rover in February 2021. Since, the 2 robotics have actually been checking out Mars’ Jezero Crater, which harbored a lake and a river delta in the ancient past.

The car-sized Perseverance is looking for indications of previous Mars life and gathering samples for future go back to Earthwhere the valuable product can be examined in higher information.

Resourcefulness was created to reveal that aerial expedition is possible on Mars regardless of the world’s thin environmentThe rotorcraft did that throughout 5 flights in the spring of 2021. NASA then gave an objective extension, throughout which Ingenuity is working as a scout for its bigger cousin.

The chopper has actually now acquired 65 flights on its prolonged objective. The Dec. 20 hop was Ingenuity’s 69th general, and it followed that a person up with another sortie on Dec. 22.

Resourcefulness has actually covered an overall of about 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) over its 70 Mars flights, according to the flight log. Determination has actually gone further; its odometer presently checks out 14.744 miles (23.729 km).

Remarkable as that latter number is, it’s not a Red Planet record: NASA’s Chance rover acquired 28.06 miles (45.16 km) throughout its functional life on the Martian surface area, which lasted from January 2004 to June 2018.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer withSpace.comand signed up with the group in 2010. He mostly covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military area, however has actually been understood to meddle the area art beat. His book about the look for alien life, “Out There,” was released on Nov. 13, 2018. Before ending up being a science author, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science composing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To discover what his most current task is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.