NASA's Mars helicopter has broken two new records after over two years on the Red Planet, in impressive developments aimed at advancing innovation in space exploration.
Ingenuity reached a speed of 14.5 miles per hour and an altitude of 52.5 feet, surpassing its previous records, NASA announced.
Teddy Tzanetos, the Ingenuity Team Lead, spoke from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and said that the records set by Ingenuity were allowing developers to advance future helicopter design.
He said: "These sorts of wins are coming from the surface of Mars directly into the design of the new sample recovery helicopters, and she's done a fantastic job and surpassed any sort of metric of success that anyone on the team could have ever imagined for this little tiny four-pound spacecraft."
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, an ultra-light aircraft, was dropped on the surface on April 3, 2021, after detaching from the Perseverance rover, which touched down on the Red Planet on February 18.
Since then, Ingenuity has flown 49 flights and is currently in the operations demonstration phase, which aims to explore how future rovers and aerial explorers can work together.
She made history when it achieved the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, NASA proudly declares, adding it is "inspiring future aerial exploration of the Red Planet, too."
The video of Mr Tzanetos updating on the Ingenuity developments showed testing for Sample Recovery Helicopters, which could serve as a backup retrieval system for Mars Sample Return.
The campaign intends to retrieve samples taken by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover for study here on earth, according to NASA.
Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful lab equipment on earth to search for signs of ancient microbial life and to better understand the water cycle that has shaped the surface and interior of Mars.
These next-generation helicopters would be able to pick up and carry sample tubes in flight and also drive on the Martian surface.
So, the data from Ingenuity is being used to advance future helicopter design, including the development of sample recovery helicopters that will work with Perseverance to collect and retrieve samples from Mars.
NASA is also exploring the possibility of using hexacopters to reach previously inaccessible parts of Mars.
Mr Tzanetos also talked about the next generation of helicopters, which are being designed to pick up and carry a sample tube while also being able to drive around on the surface of Mars.
He further discussed the possibility of fleets of Mars science helicopters flying around in the future, bringing important payloads to parts of Mars that have never been accessible before.
Another future helicopter concept is the Mars Science Helicopter, a proposed six-rotor “hexacopter” that would be about the size of the Perseverance rover. It would bring important payloads to areas of Mars that are not currently accessible.
On Thursday last week, NASA’s Perseverance rover cored and stored the first sample of the mission’s newest science campaign, NASA announced.
With each campaign, the team explores and studies a new area, and on this one, the rover is exploring the top of Jezero Crater’s delta.
Perseverance collected a total of 19 samples and three witness tubes, and it recently deposited 10 tubes as a backup cache on the Martian surface as part of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign.
