It will be NASA’s drone’s fifth flight to Mars today, with some news

We wrote about how the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was able to prolong a mission The versatility of NASA From the first 30 g 60 Martians overall (At least for now, but could be extended further). capacity Drone To withstand Mars And the agreement not to slow down the team after NASA Perseverance prevailed to allow new operational flights.

Despite everything, the fifth of the previously scheduled flights that were part of the first part of the mission is still missing. Since until the fourth flight Finished successfully By exceeding initial expectations, one can look forward to what is to come with more confidence. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory In these hours Advertise What will be the properties Fifth test On the red planet.

NASA’s fifth journey of creativity will open new frontiers

The The fifth journey of NASA creativity Scheduled for today, May 7, 2021, With takeoff at 12:33 (Mars local time, with the afternoon used to recharge the batteries), while in Italy it will be 21:26. The data will arrive only a few hours later, when you are in our country 1:31 on May 8th.

In the four tests DroneEven when advancing with horizontal movements, it always returns to the initial position of landing (as examined earlier). For this Fifth trip Instead, we chose to take off from the named airport Wright Brothers Field Landing in a new area called Airport B. The latter is visible in the photo above, taken during the fourth flight.

Once again to test new flight modes, the Drone It will start hiking up to 5 meters (previous rise) and then head south for 129 meters. Once this stage is completed, the maximum height will be increased up to 10 meters.

At this point, some stretch color photos will be taken Camera Give 13 megapixel Black and white will scan the ground as well. Your total flight time should be around 110 “after that The versatility of NASA Will land. So this will be the first flight without a track “Back and forth” ma “one direction”.

Drones will support rovers and humans on other planets

It’s a choice about usability Drones Another mission to assist the rover is to explore the path before moving forward. The distance will allow you to communicate with Determination. The rover remains necessary to transmit and receive data from the helicopter (the range should be between 1 km and 1.5 km).

During the first flight, when the initial takeoff site was chosen, perseverance helped To inspect the surface. But this time, probe maps were used Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and HiRISE high-definition camera. This allowed us to know that the Earth at that point had to remain flat.

As mentioned earlier, though, the Drone It appears to be particularly durable (with the fuel system working well), every step forward has not been tried before, and thus unknown. How will things go? We’ll know soon!