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NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to give us great bird’s-eye views of otherworldly grounds.
Last Monday (August 16), the 4 pound (1.8 kilogram) chopper successfully completed its 12th flight on the red planet, an outing designed to explore the “South Séítah” region of the Jezero crater for NASA Perseverance rover.
The main tasks of perseverance are to look for signs of seniority martian life and collecting samples for a future return to Earth. The car-sized rover failed in its first sample collection attempt earlier this month, however, thwarted by Surprisingly powdery red planet rock.
Related: Watch NASA Ingenuity’s Mars helicopter explore the intriguing Raised Ridges
Perseverance is now heading to the geologically intriguing region of South Séítah, where the mission team hopes and expects to find rocks better suited to the rover’s sampling setup. Ingenuity’s observations help the rover team plan Perseverance’s route to South Séítah and its activities in the area.
Southern Séítah is diverse and rugged, as seen in footage collected by Ingenuity during its 169-second flight on August 16. Images show the helicopter hovering over rolling sand dunes and jutting boulders, its insect-like shadow passing like a ghost above the dangers of perseverance. the team aims to avoid.
Ingenuity sailed at an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) and covered a total of 1,476 feet (450 m) of horizontal distance on the getaway, according to the flight log maintained by the helicopter team. While most of Ingenuity’s other flights were one-way, the latter was a loop, with the small helicopter taking off and landing at the same airfield.
Ingenuity is a technology demonstrator designed to show that aerial exploration is possible on Mars. The helicopter was initially tasked with making up to five flights during a month-long campaign, but it performed so well that NASA granted an extended mission focused on showcasing the reconnaissance potential of Martian helicopters. .
Mike Wall is the author of “The low“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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