NASA Ingenuity continues to fly: It has also completed its 56th flight to Mars

There has been much talk in recent days about the Indian and Russian lunar missions (Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25). The former is currently fully successful while the latter has failed to land properly. We must not forget that it is a few million kilometers higher Mars Orbiter and Rover Operations Drone And they continue to collect scientific data capable of revealing the Red Planet’s past. In particular NASA drone ingenuity Successfully completed a new flight, reaching altitude 56.

in the beginning small helicopter era “Single” Demonstration device enough for a relatively small budget to hopefully be able to complete up to five flights into the thin atmosphere of Mars. As we know things turned out differently and the drone astounded even the engineers who arrived at Flight number 56 Just a few days ago turned over time into valid support for Rover Perseverance We look forward to developing more drones in the future.

NASA Ingenuity has completed Flight 56

We recall that during Flight No. 53 (which took place on July 22) a problem occurred that did not allow the predetermined route to be completed with an emergency landing to avoid damage. That is why Flight No. 54 (on August 3) A.S “test flight” To ensure that all systems are working properly and that there is no horizontal movement but only vertical movement.

Where was the Mars drone, upgraded to Flight 55?

Engineers had already encountered a similar problem during the sixth flight but since then it has not happened again. Obviously there is a problem Mars It is not simply solvable and so every precaution has been taken to ensure the task is completed NASA’s ingenuity It can continue (although it exceeds all expectations).

Briefly, Flight 53 took place on July 22nd, Flight 54 on August 3rd, and Flight 55 on August 12th. On this last occasion, no problems were encountered and so the drone’s movements could take place as planned, to the point that the drone Flight number 56 Flight 57 was supposed to take place today (even if confirmation arrived in the next few days).

the reported data from Flight log to NASA’s ingenuity to Flight number 56 It indicates that this happened on August 25th even if confirmation only arrived on September 1st. The horizontal displacement was from 410 metres with the maximum share 12 metres at a speed of 5.3 m/s for a total duration of 140.9″. The airport moved from Pi to Rho. It is interesting to note that to find a greater horizontal distance one would have to go back to Flight 47 of March 9 (440 metres) whereas from Flight 52 no The maximum height is reached, which is 12 metres.

And in general it seems that Drone He’s still in excellent health and will be able to follow NASA Perseverance in exploring the river delta that used to fill Jezero Crater with water. Jet Propulsion Laboratory She also has He announced that the 57th flight (which will take place today) will cover a distance of 204 meters at a height of 10 meters and for a duration of approximately 120 metres. During this movement, high-resolution RTE (Return to Earth Camera) images will be taken to gather scientific information about the surroundings.