Ingenuity on historic 1st powered flight on another world

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter flies on back-to-back days to prep for 'solar conjunction' (video)

The two flights positioned Ingenuity properly for a coming two-week pause in commands.

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter flies on back-to-back days to prep for 'solar conjunction' (video)​

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter just made its 65th and 66th Red Planet flights, two short hops that helped prep the chopper for a coming stretch in which it will be cut off from ground control.


Flight 65 occurred on Nov. 2. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity stayed aloft that day for 48 seconds, covering 23 feet (7 meters) of Mars ground in the process. Then, the rotorcraft was at it again on Nov. 3 with an even briefer sortie: It lasted 23 seconds and involved a horizontal movement of just 2 feet (0.6 m), according to the mission's flight log.

Nothing went wrong on either flight; they weren't designed to chew up big chunks of Martian terrain.

Earth and the Red Planet sit on opposite sides of the sun during Mars solar conjunction, which happens once every two years or so. Importantly for NASA's Martian explorers, this positioning means our star blocks radio signals zinging between the two planets. Mars mission teams therefore stand down from commanding their robots during this time.

"It's impossible to predict what information might be lost due to interference from charged particles from the sun, and that lost information could potentially endanger the spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in a solar conjunction explainer. "Instead, prior to solar conjunction, engineers send two weeks' worth of instructions and wait."

As that note indicates, Mars solar conjunction lasts about two weeks. This latest occurrence runs from Nov. 11 to Nov. 25 — the stretch of time during which Mars will be within 2 degrees of the sun from Earth's vantage point, NASA officials said. (For perspective: Your clenched fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of sky.)

Ingenuity landed inside Mars' 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021, along with NASA's life-hunting, sample-collecting Perseverance rover.

The little chopper's primary goal was to show that powered flight is possible on Mars despite the planet's wispy atmosphere, which is just 1% the density of Earth's at sea level.

Ingenuity aced that task over five flights in the spring of 2021. NASA then granted the helicopter an extended mission, on which Ingenuity is serving as a scout for Perseverance. Over its 66 flights to date, Ingenuity has flown a total of 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) and stayed aloft for nearly 119 minutes, according to the mission flight log.

 

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter gearing up for longest flight ever this weekend

The little chopper will cover more than half a mile of Martian ground on Saturday (Dec. 9), if all goes according to plan.

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter gearing up for longest flight ever this weekend​

The little chopper will cover more than half a mile of Martian ground on Saturday (Dec. 9), if all goes according to plan.

NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter is poised to set yet another record this weekend.


The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity, the first robot ever to explore the skies of a world beyond Earth, is scheduled to make its 68th Red Planet flight on Saturday (Dec. 9).

The plan calls for Ingenuity to cover 2,717 feet (828 meters) of Mars ground — more than half a mile — during the sortie, mission team members wrote in a preview today (Dec. 8). That's considerably farther than the helicopter's current distance record of 2,310 feet (704 m), which was set in April 2022, on its 25th flight.

Ingenuity landed on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater with NASA's Perseverance rover in February 2021, tasked with showing that aerial exploration is possible on Mars despite the planet's thin atmosphere.


The little rotorcraft did just that over the course of five flights during the spring of 2021, then was granted an extended mission that continues to this day. Ingenuity is now serving as a scout for Perseverance, which is hunting for signs of ancient Mars life and collecting samples for future return to Earth.

Saturday's planned flight will target a top speed of 22.4 mph (36 kph), mission team members wrote in the preview. That would tie Ingenuity's velocity record, which was set this past October. The coming hop will last 147 seconds and take the chopper a maximum of 33 feet (10 m) above Mars' red dirt.

Those latter two figures won't set any new marks; Ingenuity has soared as high as 79 feet (24 m) and stayed aloft for 169.5 seconds at a time, according to the mission's flight log.

Over the course of its 67 Mars flights, Ingenuity has racked up a total of 121 minutes of air time and covered about 9.5 miles (15.3 kilometers) of ground