Ingenuity has now logged over 49 minutes of flight time in total and traveled 3.9 miles. "Our landing spot set us up nicely to image an area of interest for the Perseverance science team on Flight 27, near 'Séítah' ridge." Perseverance's backshell, supersonic parachute, and associated debris field are seen strewn across the Martian surface. "To get the shots we needed, Ingenuity did a lot of maneuvering, but we were confident because there was complicated maneuvering on flights 10, 12, and 13," said Håvard Grip, chief pilot of Ingenuity at JPL. In total, the helicopter, which weighs only about four pounds, traveled 1,181 feet during its journey. This time, it flew 26 feet above the ground for 159 seconds to capture the images. In its infancy, researchers were unsure just how long the $85 million drone would last on the red planet, celebrating each and every flight as a major milestone. Ingenuity's Flight 26 came on April 19, the one-year anniversary of its historic first flight. Researchers plan to continue analyzing the images for several weeks to search for clues to help future missions. However, the canopy appears unscathed, NASA says. Only about a third of the massive 70.5-foot-wide striped parachute, which contains a hidden message, is visible in the images, the rest crumpled and covered in dust. The backshell impacted the surface of Mars at about 78 miles per hour - but the images show that its protective coating appears to have remained intact, as did many of the 80 high-strength suspension lines that connect it to the parachute. And if not, the pictures are still phenomenal and inspiring." This image of Perseverance's backshell and parachute was collected by NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 26th flight on April 19, 2022. If they either reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked or provide even one dataset of engineering information we can use for Mars Sample Return planning, it will be amazing. "But Ingenuity's images offer a different vantage point. "Every time we're airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve."
"NASA extended Ingenuity flight operations to perform pioneering flights such as this," said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity's team lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This image of the backshell and supersonic parachute of NASA's Perseverance rover was captured by the agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 26th flight on Mars on April 19, 2022. They were taken during Ingenuity's 26th flight, NASA said. The 10 aerial color photos feature both the parachute that aided the roughly $2.5 billion rover's landing, as well as the cone-shaped backshell that protected it during its intense descent to the surface. The space agency said this week that the debris that allowed for a safe descent could contain useful insights for future missions. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, the first to fly on another planet, has beamed back some of the most fascinating photos of the red planet yet, showing off what is actually debris from its landing aboard the Perseverance rover in February 2021.
And it was all captured by a tiny helicopter flying overhead. On Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.It's an eerie scene: A desolate Martian landscape, completely empty, save for the wreckage of what appears to be an alien spacecraft. However, the skies began to clear and InSight, which is recording earthquakes on Mars among other geologic investigations, exited safe mode.Įvery year there are some moderately big dust storms on the Martian surface that cover continent-sized areas and last for weeks at a time.įollow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews, also keep up with us In safe mode, a spacecraft suspends all but its essential functions. Meanwhile, another dust storm on Mars forced NASA's solar-powered InSight lander to power down into "safe mode" on Jan. Furthermore, the dust is heated by sunlight and warms the surrounding atmosphere and hence reduces the already-low-density air in which Ingenuity must fly. This atmospheric dust decreases the amount of sunlight that reaches Ingenuity’s solar panels that charges the batteries needed for flight. The dust storm has put a hitch in NASA's plans to once again fly its expectation-exceeding Ingenuity helicopter, the part of the Perseverance mission and Flight 19 has been delayed.ĭust plays a major role in Mars’ climate as well as for solar-powered surface assets like Ingenuity. The first signs of the approaching dust storm on Martian space were spotted by Perseverance, which observed increased dust lifting within the Jezero crater.
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