NASA’s Perseverance rover has been on Mars for about 2 years. On the Twitter account of the Perseverance team, photos of the mini helicopter Ingenuity flying on Mars were shared.
The photos shared by the Perseverance team on Twitter read, “#MarsHelicopter and I are closer than we’ve ever been in a while. Between flights I saw someone resting on a sand dune. Guess who it was. Can you believe Ingenuity is getting ready for Flight 39?” published with the description.
MORE THAN 64 MINUTES IN THE AIR ON MARS
On January 11, Ingenuity conducted Mars flyby 39, covering 140 meters in about 79 seconds. According to the flight log, the helicopter has so far been in the air for more than 64 minutes, flying a total of 7,830 meters on Mars.
The Perseverance rover, built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and powered by plutonium fuel, landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, 7 months after launching on July 30, 2020.
For the realization of Perseverance’s new mission on the Red Planet, which has the most advanced technological features among the vehicles sent to Mars, 2.4 billion dollars was spent on infrastructure works, and 300 million dollars was spent on the system that makes it possible to land and operate the vehicle.
GOING TO HISTORY
The 1.8 kilogram mini helicopter Ingenuity, which was sent with Perseverance, made history as “the first aircraft to be flown on another planet” with its first successful 1-minute flight on April 19, 2021.
Because the density of the atmosphere on Mars is about 1 percent that of Earth, NASA engineers used ultralight materials and four 123-centimetre propellers, each of which rotated faster than needed on Earth, to lift Ingenuity from the ground. (AA)