After its fifth flight, the Mars helicopter re-landed about 130 meters further south according to the “Ingenuity” plan. During this take-off, the mini-helicopter reached a record altitude of around ten meters, NASA announced on Friday (local time). At the new location, “Ingenuity” (for example, in German: Simplicity) will perform new tasks over the next few weeks, such as providing aerial effects of areas in which the rover cannot penetrate, or create three-dimensional images at altitude . atmosphere. NASA announced that these findings would be helpful for exploration of Mars and other space objects from the air.

First audio recording of a spacecraft from another spacecraft on Mars

NASA also released the first audio recording of the Mars helicopter flight on Friday. The rover “Perseverance”, with which the mini-helicopter landed on Mars in February, recorded the sounds with one of its microphones on the fourth flight of “Ingenuity” at the end of April. This is the first audio recording from a flight to Mars and the first that a spacecraft on another planet is made from another spacecraft.

The helicopter cannot be heard particularly well, however, “persistence” has been recorded from about 80 meters away and the thin Mars atmosphere and air have also become damp and ejected flight noise. But even that can be heard is a small “very nice surprise” and a “gold mine that is a gold mine for further understanding,” said scientist David Mimoun.

“Innate” flew for the first time on April 19, making it the first aircraft to fly on another planet. The mini-helicopter was installed in late February on NASA’s Rover “Perseverance” (in German: living power) – after a 203-day flight and a journey of 472 million kilometers – a risky maneuver in a dry Mars lake “Jezero Crater” with.

Read also: NASA’s helicopter “Ingenuity” completes its first flight to Mars

It took the Rover eight years to develop and build around $ 2.5 billion (about 2.2 billion euros). He is about to find traces of past microbial life on Mars and conduct research on the planet’s climate and geology. On April 30, the US Space Agency announced that “Ingenuity” would remain on Mars longer than before. Originally planned for approximately 30 days, the mission was initially extended to 30 days.