Ingenuity landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, attached to the body of the Perseverance rover, and first left the Martian surface on April 19.
The Ingenuity helicopter has completed its mission to the Red Planet. NASA reported it.
Although the helicopter remains upright, images of its Jan. 18 flight sent back to Earth this week indicate that one or more of the rotor blades were damaged during landing and rendered it unable to fly.
Once the flights are completed, the Ingenuity team will perform final tests on the helicopter’s systems and load the remaining images and data into the on-board memory. The Perseverance rover is now too far away to attempt to photograph the helicopter at what became its final airstrip.
It was noted that the helicopter exceeded the expectations of the engineers, because a 30-day mission and no more than five short flights were planned for it. However, in almost three years of operation, it completed 72 flights and flew more than 14 times more than planned, recording more than two hours of total flight time.
It was earlier reported that NASA’s Ingenuity Mars rover, during its 63rd flyby of the Red Planet, managed to cover an impressively long distance of 579 meters.
Source: korrespondent
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