Washington (AP) – After its fifth flight, the Mars helicopter “Ingenuity” returned to the planet about 130 meters further south as planned.
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” (in German: Simplicity) will perform new tasks over the next few weeks, such as providing aerial effects of areas in which a rover cannot penetrate or create three-dimensional images from heights in the atmosphere. NASA announced that these findings would be helpful for exploration of Mars and other space objects from the air.
NASA also released the first audio recording of the Mars helicopter flight on Friday. Rover recorded the “tenacity”, with which the mini-helicopter landed on Mars in February, with one of his 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, as “perseverance” has been recorded from about 80 meters away and the thin Mars atmosphere and air have also declined and ejected the noise of the aircraft. Have given. But even that little can be heard is a “very nice surprise” and a “gold mine” for understanding the Martian atmosphere, scientist David Mimoun said.
“Innate” flew for the first time on April 19, making it the first aircraft to fly on another planet. The mini-helicopter was installed on NASA’s rover “Perseverance” (in German: Stamina) in late February – after a 203-day flight and a 472 million-kilometer trip – with risky maneuvers in a dry Martian lake “Jezero ” Pit “.
It took 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 previously planned. Originally planned for approximately 30 days, the mission was initially extended to 30 days.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210508-99-518255 / 2
