From NASA Ingenuity helicopter fair completed a much more ambitious third flight. As Space.com reports, the Mars plane ventured about 164 feet north of its base (just over half the length of a football field) at a speed of about 4.5 MPH. It might not sound like a lot, but Ingenuity only traveled 13 feet at 1.1 MPH on its second flight – it was far enough away that you almost had to squint to see Ingenuity in the photo above.
There are only two potential flights left before NASA wraps up its efforts in early May and focuses on the Perseverance rover main mission. Expect it to be exciting, however. Project manager Mimi Aung said the last two trips should be “really adventurous” and test the limits of the flying machine.
The successes achieved so far are already likely to have a significant impact on future exploration of Mars. Ingenuity is proof that planes can fly the planet despite its very low atmospheric density, and there’s now a good chance that later missions will use drones to monitor Mars from perspectives that just weren’t previously available.
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