With everything happening on Earth, we sometimes forget that there is a helicopter orbiting Mars.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter — the first craft to make a powered, controlled flight to another planet — made its 64th flight (engineers hoped it could fly five times, if ever) in late October. The probe, with four-foot-long rotor blades that rotate at 2,400 revolutions per minute, showed its flight image, where it traveled 1,348 feet (411 meters) across the Martian desert.
With sunlight overhead, the craft casts shadows on the extraterrestrial space, creating the sci-fi-like image you see below.
The Mars spacecraft looks back and takes in a stunning view of Earth
Intelligence captured the images using its navigation camera, which is “mounted on the helicopter and pointed directly at the ground to track the ground during flight,” NASA explained.
The Ingenuity helicopter hovers just above the ground. You can see its two real legs in the right corners.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Ingenuity helicopter flies above the Martian.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
A little shadow of Ingenuity on the ground as the ship reaches its highest point.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
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Combining these images makes a clear video of this Oct. flight. 27:
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NASA’s car-sized Perseverance rover, with experimental support from Ingenuity, is on a mission focused on finding signs of ancient life on the Martian surface. This may mean fragments of genes, or parts of a damaged cell.
So far, there is no evidence that life existed on Mars – or anywhere beyond Earth, for that matter. But these robots will continue to roam the desert, especially dry rivers, streams, and lakes where life could continue on land. Ingenuity and Perseverance explores Mars’ Jezero Crater, a river that planetary scientists think was once full of water.
One day, however, scientists may have the opportunity to peer deep into the Martian soil, a sheltered environment that would last longer than the extremely dry, cold and radioactive environment. Who knows what we will find.
