NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter simply marked an necessary milestone. Space.com reports that Ingenuity crossed the one-mile mark for whole distance flown with its tenth flight on July twenty fourth, when it traveled over the Jezero Crater’s “Raised Ridges” space. That might not sound like quite a lot of flying, however NASA was solely planning just a few check flights for Ingenuity earlier than increasing the automobile’s function — the robotic plane would not have coated practically as a lot floor in any other case.
This was additionally probably the most bold flight to this point. The helicopter needed to swing previous 10 totally different waypoints, and flew to a record-high altitude of 40ft throughout the 310ft journey. It additionally needed to seize sufficient pictures to assist NASA produce stereoscopic pictures of Raised Ridges and assist inform a possible go to from the Perseverance rover.
It’s not clear simply what number of extra miles Ingenuity can rack up. The helicopter is the primary of its variety, and tends to push limits with every new flight. The one-mile threshold is critical by itself, although — it suggests the plane may accomplish loads throughout Perserverance’s deliberate two-year mission, and probably extra.
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