The helicopter, a part of NASA’s Perseverance mission, has formally flown for over 100 minutes.
As it seems, NASA’s Ingenuity is the little Martian helicopter that might. Earlier this month, the Mars-based chopper flew for simply over two minutes, formally crossing a serious milestone on the planet—it is now flown for over 100 minutes. Paart of the house company’s bigger Perseverance mission, Ingenuity has been tasked with happening quick flights to gather extra information to assist the Perseverance rover chart its path throughout the planet.
Ingenuity has formally flown for 102.4 minutes via its 57 flights, translating to roughly 13,130 meters traveled or simply over eight miles. The helicopter has, by all measures, surpassed the expectations of researchers engaged on the mission. While Ingenuity has been gathering information from the air, Perseverance has been gathering soil samples on the bottom.
“Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” Perseverance challenge scientist Ken Farley mentioned in a NASA press launch earlier this 12 months. “Perseverance has inspected and performed data collection on hundreds of intriguing geologic features, collected 15 rock cores, and created the first sample depot on another world. With the start of the next science campaign, known as ‘Upper Fan,’ on Feb. 15, we expect to be adding to that tally very soon.”
As it stands now, these samples are set to return to Earth sooner or later in 2031. A pick-up craft is meant to launch in the direction of Mars in 2026 earlier than selecting up the samples and returning again.
“The samples Perseverance has been collecting will provide a key chronology for the formation of Jezero Crater,” Thomas Zurbuchen, affiliate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, mentioned final 12 months. “Each one is carefully considered for its scientific value.”
“Right now, we take what we know about the age of impact craters on the Moon and extrapolate that to Mars,” added Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s deputy challenge scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Bringing back a sample from this heavily cratered surface in Jezero could provide a tie-point to calibrate the Mars crater dating system independently, instead of relying solely on the lunar one.”
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