NASA continues with the vehicles it sends to explore Mars. Finally, the agency’s Perseverance vehicle captured the take-off moment of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter. As NASA scrutinizes the planet with its Mars missions, it also shares unique discoveries or moments captured from time to time. Finally, the agency shared a short video that includes the departure and progress of the Ingenuity helicopter, which examines the planet by flying.
The Ingenuity helicopter was actually inside the Perseverance vehicle that NASA landed on Mars in February. Perseverance, which is the size of a car, dropped the small robotic helicopter Ingenuity, 121 cm long and 1.8 kilograms, to the surface shortly after landing, and this vehicle made its first flight on April 19. The 47th flight of the Mars helicopter, which has taken off a total of 46 times since then, was caught on Perseverance’s cameras.
Mars helicopter caught on camera
You can watch Ingenuity’s take-off, the dust it leaves behind and its progress in the video below, which can take off at a maximum height of 12 meters from the ground and reach a speed of 20 kilometers per hour. In its statement, NASA also states that Perseverance, which took the video, was about 120 meters away and Ingenuity flew 440 meters.
However, in fact, NASA initially sent Ingenuity to Mars for one purpose; To see if flying in the Martian atmosphere is possible. Stating that this is possible after dozens of flights, NASA is now using the vehicle for different purposes. NASA is escalating both vehicles to the northwest slopes of Belva, another crater area now inside Jezero crater. NASA uses Ingenuity as a route exploration and pioneer.
NASA and ESA will bring samples collected from the planet to Earth with their vehicles that will land on Mars in 2033. Building on Ingenuity‘s success, space agencies plan to prepare two Ingenuity-like helicopters to help Perseverance deliver samples to the spacecraft. As it will be remembered, Perseverance dropped a sample it collected to the surface of Mars. These two planned helicopters will try to bring the samples to the vehicle in case of similar problems.
