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About a week ago we wrote about 46th flight successfully executed by NASA Ingenuity on the Martian surface. An extraordinary result that greatly exceeds initial expectations considering the relatively low cost of the drone (about $85 million) and the fact that it was also the first device to lift itself off the surface of another planet. Until the first tests, scientists were not sure that everything would go as planned by estimating a success of the mission upon reaching the fifth flight.
The small helicopter instead it was able to exceed the initial expectations reaching the 46th flight (ready for the next ones). The drone it has also successfully survived the Martian winter, something absolutely not obvious considering the various problems related to battery management when sandstorms obscured the Sun. Software updates and other measures have however allowed the engineers to go beyond the initial objectives, reaching be an important tool for Martian exploration and to help the (much more expensive) NASA Perseverance.
NASA Perseverance rover photographs NASA Ingenuity drone
As previously reported the rover approached the drone over the last few sols continuing exploration of the river delta that once filled the Jezero crater of water. This area is important as it is more likely to find fossil microbial life forms dating back millions of years. We remind you that the main mission is that of Perseverance which is the device that must be most protected from problems.
Click on the image to enlarge
Despite it all NASA Ingenuity it can still provide useful information to the latter thanks to the possibility of flying at a maximum altitude of 12 meters, taking panoramic photographs even more detailed than those of HiRISE. For example the rover it will hardly venture into sandy areas and the drone can help to identify and avoid them.
Currently the rover and the drone are located about 100 meters away from each other allowing the first to capture new images thanks to the powerful Mastcam-Z cameras. As written on other occasions these are not the first images of this kind but compared to those of the Navcams they are more detailed photographs with greater optical magnification.
Perseverance comes with two Mastcam-Z (right and left) located at the bottom of the “head” of the rover. Curiosity also has similar cameras but thanks to the advancement of technology some aspects have been improved. The two cameras have a mass of 4 kg each. The maximum resolution is 1600 x 1200 pixels. In the pictures you can see NASA Ingenuity on the surface of Mars after the 46th flight. Thanks to the magnification capacity, details such as the rotors, solar panels and lower supports can be seen. The body, covered in insulating material, is rather bright during the Martian day.
We also report the final data of the 46th flight Of NASA Ingenuity. As reported in the flight log official the flight took place during the 717th sol (February 25). The horizontal distance covered was 445 meters with a maximum altitude of 12 meters. The maximum speed reached 5.3 m/s with a total duration of 135.9″. We then moved from the Eta airfield to the Theta airfield.
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