The Ingenuity helicopter, which has already become one of the most successful engineering advances to arrive on Mars, has set new records in its ninth flight. The quadcopter “pushing its limits on Mars” completed its most challenging flight yet as engineers demonstrated its operational capability and aerial manoeuvrability on another planet.
In its ninth flight, Ingenuity flew for 166.4 seconds and managed to gain an airspeed of 5 meters per second. The hop was part of a high-speed flight across unfriendly terrain that has now placed the helicopter farther away from its home station Perseverance rover.
The rover is now at the eastern edge of the Jazero crater, a scientifically interesting region called “Séítah,” which is characterized by sandy ripples that could be very challenging terrain.
BREAKING RECORD AFTER RECORD
The Ingenuity helicopter has come a long way from its first April 19th hop when it hovered about 10…
