NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Successfully Completes 20th Flight

The National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) landed its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater successfully.

This successful flight marks its 20th Mars flight, outlasting all projections for the length of its mission by a factor of four, according to Space.com.

"Flight 20 was a success! In its 130.3 seconds of flight, the Mars Helicopter covered 391 meters at a speed of 4.4 meters per second, bringing it closer to NASA Perseverance's landing location," NASA said in its tweet about the helicopter's successful launch.

A Story of 'Perseverance' and 'Ingenuity'

According to NASA's Mars Exploration Program website, Ingenuity is a tech demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars. It accompanied the Administration's latest Mars rover, Perseverance, on its trip to Mars on July 30, 2020, due to Ingenuity being attached to perseverance's belly.

Both helicopter and rover survived the trip and arrived on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, with the helicopter proving that powered flight on Mars can be achieved while Perseverance continues to explore the Red Planet in search of ancient life and collecting Martian rock and soil to send back to Earth if possible.

Ingenuity completed its first flight on April 19, 2021, as part of NASA's technology demonstration. It has been transitioned to its operations demo phase after its sixth flight to see how aerial scouting and other functions could benefit future exploration of Mars and other worlds, per a separate NASA Mars Exploration Program page.

NASA's Ingenuity team expected that the helicopter would last a month, per NASA's tweet, or a total of five flights, according to Business Insider. According to NASA Ingenuity team lead, Teddy Tzanetos, any flight past the fifth could be the last, and it wouldn't be a surprise for them to see parts failing. However, he will consider the inevitable failure a "fantastic discovery" and a "data point" for NASA to understand flight on another planet, per a UPI article.

Tzanetos' comment was made around the time before Ingenuity's 16th flight.

Despite these, Ingenuity has defied expectations and has reached a total of 20 successful flights, including the one made recently. According to Ingenuity's technicians, the helicopter showed no signs of failure, and its solar-powered batteries continued to perform as expected.

What the Future Holds for 'Ingenuity'

Ingenuity and Perseverance are expected to head back to its landing site, the Jezero Crater, after exploring the locales south and west of the landing site. After which, the two will be exploring the crater's delta - the reason why NASA chose the crater as its landing site.

Briony Horgan, an associate professor of planetary science at Purdue University, said that the rover would be searching for signs of ancient microbial life while being guided by Ingenuity.
"We plan to spend the whole next year travelling through the ancient lake deposits and ancient river deposits that are within the area," Horgan said.

Ingenuity's main task during the trip is to capture airborne imagery that gives handlers the necessary data to choose the safest and most efficient route toward the delta region, according to mission team members.