Let’s hope Ingenuity remembered to take its towel earlier than flying to Mars.
Ingenuity reached a milestone 42 helicopter flights on its prolonged phase to assist the Perseverance rover mission. Whereas practicing for Mars pattern return with aptitude, the flight generated inevitable “Hitchhiker’s Information to the Galaxy” jokes.
Reaching 42 represents “the that means of life, the universe, and every little thing,” wrote NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Twitter (opens in new tab) of the Feb. 4 flight. The quantity has resonance for followers of the 1979 Douglas Adams novel and related tv sequence and movies, who realized of 42’s significance to our cosmos by way of a fictional supercomputer quoted within the e-book.
Associated: Mars rover Perseverance spots Ingenuity helicopter resting on sand dune (photo)
Ingenuity’s unique manifest known as for under 5 flights after the four-pound (1.8-kg) rover alighted on the floor of Mars beneath the stomach of the Perseverance rover. The mission has a bigger agenda to seek for historic life in Jezero Crater, which hosted a river delta eons in the past.
As Ingenuity proved flights had been attainable on the Crimson Planet, its scope rapidly expanded. Now the drone has turn out to be a dependable accomplice in scouting forward for Perseverance’s sampling and sorties, a lot in order that NASA altered its Mars pattern return plans in 2022 to incorporate two fetch helicopters.
When that joint NASA-European House Company mission arrives on Mars, the prime plan requires Perseverance to ferry samples to a ready spacecraft by itself. Failing that, nonetheless, the 2 backup helicopters will function Crimson Planet aid, selecting up twin lightsaber-shaped pattern tubes Percy is rigorously putting on the floor. Then a relay of spacecraft will convey the pattern again to Earth no sooner than 2033.
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On its newest tour, Ingenuity flew for greater than two minutes (137.2 seconds) and vaulted about 814 ft (248 meters) northwest throughout the Martian floor, the helicopter’s flight log (opens in new tab) signifies. It reached a most altitude of greater than two storeys (10 ft or 33.3 ft) with a most floor velocity of 6.7 mph (10.7 km/h).
The drone has been averaging a flight every week for the reason that starting of 2023 as Perseverance continues its crawl throughout the floor, dropping tubes alongside the best way. The rover accomplished its first sample “depot” about two weeks in the past, on Jan. 29, stashing ten treasured sealed samples on the floor for the Mars pattern return helicopters, if essential.
Ingenuity and Perseverance alike are engaged on a brand new eight-month campaign that JPL officers name “Delta Prime.” The area seems to be wealthy in lake rocks and sediments from historic occasions and will have hosted the mouth of a Martian river, offering circumstances doubtlessly wealthy for long-ago life.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e-book about space medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
