On Friday, the Ingenuity helicopter took its fifth flight on Mars. For the first time it landed in a new location, 423 feet from where it started, rather than returning to the same spot. It also set a new height record of 33 feet. The plan is for Ingenuity to stay in this location (between flights) for the next month.
Ingenuity’s mission has changed from being a basic proof of concept (proving that flight is possible on Mars). Now they’ll go beyond that to demonstrate how the aircraft can be useful to future missions, by following the Perseverance rover and photographing the area around it as it travels.
Featured image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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