The American Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA has reported on the second successful flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.
Recall that the first flight took place on Monday, April 19, 2021, then Ingenuity rose to a height of 3 meters and held a stable position for 30 seconds. The total flight duration was 39.1 seconds.
He will now make a series of longer flights over the Jezero crater. The second flight took place today, April 22, 2021. The flight lasted 51.9 seconds. Ingenuity has accomplished additional tasks that it did not face on its first flight, including higher maximum altitude, longer duration, and sideways movement.
Ingenuity first took to the air at 12:33 Moscow time. This time the helicopter gained a height of 5 meters. After it hovered over the surface for a short time, the flight control system performed a slight tilt (5 degrees), allowing the vehicle to be dispersed sideways by 2 meters.
Howard Grip, chief pilot of Ingenuity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said:
The helicopter stopped, hovered in place and made turns to direct the camera in different directions. He then headed back to the center of the airfield to land. Sounds simple, but there is a lot of unknown about how to fly a helicopter on Mars. That is why we are here – to make the unknown known. “
NASA notes that flying a plane on Mars is much more difficult than it is on Earth. Despite the fact that the gravity on Mars is about a third of Earth’s, the helicopter must fly in an atmosphere that is only about 1% of the density of the atmosphere on the Earth’s surface.
The helicopter was delivered to Mars attached to the bottom of the Perseverance rover, which landed in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. The main tasks of Ingenuity are precisely the demonstration of technologies and the conduct of the first flights on Mars. NASA is already working on the next generation of Martian helicopters.
.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
