This mission was supposed to just demonstrate the possibility of (future) sustained flight(s). The team was hoping for at least three flights. They've achieved SIX TIMES as many. This will be a useful tech learning -- when we go to collect the rock core samples being deposited by the companion "Perseverance" rover, now on Mars, in the Bulter landing plain. . . for a future (also robotic) search and pickup mission. Here's the latest:
. . .The 17th flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Dec. 5 pushed the total flight time past the 30-minute mark. The 117-second sortie brought history’s first aircraft to operate from the surface of another world closer to its original airfield, “Wright Brothers Field,” where it will await the arrival of the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover, currently exploring “South Séítah” region of Mars’ Jezero Crater.
Along with accumulating 30 minutes and 48 seconds of flight time, the trailblazing helicopter has traveled over the surface a distance of 2.2 miles (3,592 meters), flying as high as 40 feet (12 meters) and as fast as 10 mph (5 meters per second). . . .
Now you know. . . smiling, as we load the now-grown families up, for a month on the steppes of the White Tank Mountains, in the high Arizona desert. . . .
नमस्ते
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