Spreading its wings ,NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter takes third flight

Florida, April 26: A week after taking its first flight on the Mars surface, the US space agency NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made a third successful flight on Mars on Sunday moving farther and faster than ever before with a peak speed of 6.6 feet (two meters) per second.

 

In a statement, NASA said that Ingenuity took off from the Martian surface at 4:31 am EDT and rose to a height of 16 feet (5 meters). Following which it zipped downrange 164 feet (50 meters), just over half the length of a football field. After data came back from Mars starting at 10:16 a.m. EDT (7:16 a.m. PDT), Ingenuity’s team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California was ecstatic to see the helicopter soaring out of view.

 

 

The Perseverance rover, which carried the four-pound (1.8 kg) rotorcraft to Mars, filmed the 80-second third flight. NASA said Sunday that video clips would be sent to Earth in the coming days.

 

Dave Lavery, the project’s program executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA Headquarters in Washington said, “Today’s flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing, adding that, with this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions.”

 

NASA explained that the lateral flight was a test for the helicopter's autonomous navigation system, which completes the route according to information received beforehand. "If Ingenuity flies too fast, the flight algorithm can't track surface features," NASA explained in a statement about the flight.

 

Earlier, the helicopter took its 2nd flight on April 22 at “Wright Brothers Field,”. Ingenuity took off at 5:33 a.m. EDT (2:33 a.m. PDT), or 12:33 p.m. local Mars time.

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