![This view of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was generated using data collected by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover on Aug. 2, 2023.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ingenuity-800x348.jpg)
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
By the usual of a few of its previous flights, probably the most recent voyage of NASA’s intrepid helicopter on Mars was nothing special. Over a period of 24 seconds, the small helicopter rose to an altitude 5 meters above the red planet’s dusty surface after which touched back down in the identical spot.
During a few of its past flights, has flown for nearly three minutes at a time and traversed so far as 700 meters across Martian terrain. The truth is, after landing on Mars greater than two years ago as a part of the Perseverance mission, the helicopter is arguably one among NASA’s best exploration feats of all time.
Mission success for was completing five relatively short flights. Nonetheless, since its first test flight in April 2021, the helicopter has exceeded all expectations by flying greater than 50 different sorties across Mars and surviving long and dark winters.
Despite its brevity, nevertheless, ‘s most up-to-date flight on August 3 was nonetheless a very important one for the helicopter. That is because, on its 53rd flight in late July, the helicopter robotically aborted a planned flight of 136 seconds after just 76 seconds and made an emergency landing.
After the flight, the helicopter’s operators at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory determined that the premature landing got here after images from Ingenuity’s navigation camera didn’t match data from the vehicle’s inertial measurement unit. Briefly, its on-board computer expected to see one thing, and it saw one other.
“For the reason that very first flight, now we have included a program called ‘LAND_NOW’ that was designed to place the helicopter on the surface as soon as possible if any one among a number of dozen off-nominal scenarios was encountered,” Teddy Tzanetos, team lead emeritus for Ingenuity, said. “During Flight 53, we encountered one among these, and the helicopter worked as planned and executed a right away landing.”
![This image of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, visible at the top right of center, was taken by the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/PIA25969-980x727.jpg)
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The helicopter’s flight last Thursday was to assemble additional data concerning the conditions that prompted the previous flight to finish early. After the most recent flight, Tzanetos said the helicopter team feels confident that Ingenuity can get back to flying more rigorous missions soon.
There was one other good thing about the short up-and-down mission. At the peak of 5 meters above the surface, the helicopter snapped a photograph of the Martian terrain that included Perseverance at the highest of the frame—a picture one way or the other each desolate and stuffed with hope at the identical time.