{"id":11726,"date":"2021-04-23T20:39:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T12:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-mars-helicopter-completes-second-higher-flight\/"},"modified":"2021-04-23T20:39:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T12:39:29","slug":"nasas-mars-helicopter-completes-second-higher-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-mars-helicopter-completes-second-higher-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured it with its color camera during its second successful flight test on April 22, 2021. At the time this image, Ingenuity was 17 feet (5.2 meters) above the surface and pitching (moving the camera\u2019s field of view upward) so the helicopter could begin its 7-foot (2-meter) translation to the west \u2013 away from the Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second flight of NASA\u2019s Ingenuity helicopter in the Martian atmosphere Thursday took the rotorcraft higher than its first hop. A third takeoff as soon as Sunday will take the helicopter more than 150 feet away from its makeshift airfield as engineers attempt more daring test flights.<\/p>\n

Ingenuity\u2019s ground team at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is moving quickly with the helicopter\u2019s test flights, aiming to accomplish five takeoffs and landings by early May. The small drone became the first aircraft to make a controlled flight in the atmosphere of another planet with a 39-second up-and-down hop to an altitude of about 10 feet (3 meters) Monday.<\/p>\n

The helicopter\u2019s second flight Thursday went higher to an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters). After briefly maintaining its position, Ingenuity tilted at an angle of 5 degrees to move laterally about 7 feet (2 meters), according to JPL.<\/p>\n

The rotorcraft made three turns to point its camera in different directions, then returned to the takeoff location, or airfield, for landing. Ingenuity\u2019s second flight lasted 51.9 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, the engineering telemetry we have received and analyzed tell us that the flight met expectations and our prior computer modeling has been accurate,\u201d said Bob Balaram, chief engineer for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL.  \u201cWe have two flights of Mars under our belts, which means that there is still a lot to learn during this month of Ingenuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingenuity\u2019s fuselage is not much larger than a tissue box, and its twin counter-rotating carbon-composite rotor blades span about 4 feet (1.2 meters) tip-to-tip. The entire helicopter weighed about 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) on Earth, or 1.5 pounds under weaker Martian gravity.<\/p>\n

NASA released a color image captured on Thursday\u2019s flight by a side-pointing camera on the helicopter, showing tracks left by the Perseverance rover after it deployed Ingenuity onto the surface of Mars last month. Officials previously released black-and-white views from the helicopter\u2019s down-facing camera taken during Ingenuity\u2019s first flight Monday.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, officials also shared a video from a zoomed-in camera on the Perseverance rover, which is observing the Ingenuity test flights from a safe position more than 200 feet (60 meters) away.<\/p>\n

NASA initially released wide-angle views from Perseverance, showing Ingenuity\u2019s first flight in its entirety. The new video from Perseverance\u2019s Mastcam-Z instrument comes from a different camera that scientists zoomed in for the test flight, revealing a sharper view of the helicopter as it took off and landed. The drawback of that view is Ingenuity quickly flies out of frame.<\/p>\n