See NASA's Mars helicopter settled into its new home after a successful fifth flight
Welcome home, Ingenuity.
The small helicopter that NASA sent to Mars as carry-on baggage for the Perseverance rover back in July 2020 finished what was originally supposed to be its final flight on Friday. But after a series of escalating successes for the little aircraft, NASA decided recently to extend Ingenuity's mission by at least another month.
That turned the helicopter's fifth and would-be final flight into a relocation exercise, with Ingenuity lifting off and embarking on a one-way trip to its new landing field. From here, NASA will stage another lineup of tests that will last no longer than through the end of August.
The fifth flight of Ingenuity clocked in at 108 seconds, with the helicopter flying higher than it has previously (by roughly double), at 33 feet. Its one-way trip to the new home traveled 423 feet across the Mars surface.
While the first phase of tests pursued the straightforward goal of proving that aerial exploration of Mars is possible, the second phase will shift focus more toward how aerial exploration can aid in our broader efforts to understand and map out one of Earth's neighbors. NASA suggests these tasks will include "scouting, aerial observations of areas not accessible by a rover, and detailed stereo imaging from atmospheric altitudes."
The important thing about this next stretch of tests is letting the Perseverance rover get back to its other work. While it ferried Ingenuity down to the Mars surface and has supported the little helicopter's mission so far, Perseverance has other priorities that will move to the forefront now that NASA has entered a phase of Ingenuity's life that wasn't part of the original misison.
"The plan forward is to fly Ingenuity in a manner that does not reduce the pace of Perseverance science operations," said Bob Balaram, NASA's chief engineer for Ingenuity at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"We may get a couple more flights in over the next few weeks, and then the agency will evaluate how we're doing. We have already been able to gather all the flight performance data that we originally came here to collect. Now, this new operations demo gives us an opportunity to further expand our knowledge of flying machines on other planets."
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
