Mars helicopter zooms past its first mile marker during 10th flight

After 10 successful flights on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has now covered more than a mile in the Martian air.

Ingenuity’s 10th flight on Saturday saw the four-pound drone scouting over an area of scientific interest called the Raised Ridges, covering a distance of about 310 feet in a little under three minutes. Along with hitting a record-setting altitude of 40 feet, the helicopter clocked its first mile on its 152nd sol (Mars day) after landing with Perseverance in February.

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The little helicopter was originally planned to perform just five test flights, a tech demo to see if it was actually possible to fly in the extremely challenging Martian environment. After those five successful flights, Ingenuity has been embarking on exceedingly challenging scouting missions, looking for interesting terrain that the Perseverance rover could potentially visit with all of its scientific instruments. In total, the helicopter has spent nearly 17 minutes in the air.

Saturday’s 10th flight had the helicopter fly through a series of 10 waypoints, the most that it’s done in one flight, to get images of the Raised Ridges. Located within the ancient lakebed in Jezero Crater, the geology of the Raised Ridges could help scientists unpack the history of this area of Mars where liquid water once flowed over the surface, and life may have once existed. Mission scientists said in a news briefing on July 21 that Perseverance will collect a sample from the Raised Ridges to be prepared for a return to Earth.

This annotated map shows the planned path for Ingenuity’s 10th flight, including the 10 waypoints it successfully traversed through.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Ingenuity’s ability to cover far distances and travel above difficult terrain makes it an excellent companion to the Perseverance rover. The helicopter can scout ahead to find interesting terrain and see if certain destinations are worth the rover taking the time to travel to and inspect. Efficiency is key in interplanetary exploration.

With 10 flights down, hopefully Ingenuity can keep pushing the boundaries in its historic life on Mars and continue to deliver positive results to aid in scientists’ quest to determine whether life ever appeared on Mars.