Space NASA's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Completes Its Historic Mission Ingenuity's journey began on April 19, 2021, when it became the first aircraft to take flight on another planet. Its mission was initially planned for five experimental test flights over 30 days, but it far outperformed those expectations.
Space Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Navigates Martian Winter as NASA Plans Upgrades Ingenuity's resilience in the Martian winter and its numerous successful flights underscore its crucial role in Mars exploration, serving as a scout for NASA's Perseverance rover.
Space NASA Shared a Video of the Ingenuity Helicopter's Longest Flight on Mars On April 8, 2022, Ingenuity made its record 25th flight, traveling 704 meters at a maximum speed of 5.5 meters per second in 161.3 seconds. The video of the 161.3-second flight was sped up about five times, reducing its length to less than 35 seconds.
Space NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Finds Wreckage From Perseverance Rover's Landing NASA notes that the coating on the outside of the backshell, the parachute, and the lines connecting the parachute to the spacecraft all survived their trip to the surface of Mars.
Space NASA Announced Plans to Send Next-Gen Research Helicopter to Mars The successful demonstration of possible flights on Mars, together with the information collected by Ingenuity during its test flights, let NASA engineers move on to designing a next-generation flying spacecraft for exploring the Red Planet.
