In December 2023, the next NASA Mars mission, consisting of the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter, celebrated 1,000 days of its stay on the Red Planet. And if there are no questions about the rover – it is not the only one on Mars at the moment, then the helicopter has become a new type of equipment exploring distant planets. Ingenuity has set the bar high since its inception and continues to surprise even its developers. And the new record did not last long.

The agency reported that the helicopter made its 69th flight on December 20. It must be said that this is not just a test. For Ingenuity to work, it is necessary to stay in communication with the rover, to which commands are transmitted from Earth. If the helicopter gets stuck somewhere in the sand dunes of Mars, it will no longer be able to fly and it is unlikely that they will be able to search for it with the help of a rover. The rover has its own work schedule.

The helicopter broke the distance record on its 69th flight. The device traveled 705 meters in a single flight, and the previous record was broken in April 2022. The 1.8 kg rotorcraft then flew 704 m. It is not difficult to understand that both the solar panels and the battery of the helicopter were damaged over the past year and a half. Therefore, exceeding the record by even one meter is a success.

Creativity lasted 135.4 seconds in the air. The maximum flight speed was 10 m/s. The height of the flight was 16 m. The helicopter and the rover are currently in the region of the delta of the ancient Martian river flowing into the Jezero crater (ancient lake), and the terrain there is intensively traversed. The helicopter should definitely have stayed higher.

The ingenuity was supposed to prove the possibility of using rotorcraft in the Martian atmosphere. At surface level in the flyby region, the density of the Martian atmosphere is about 1% of that of Earth. 5 attempts were made to check whether the helicopter could climb in these conditions. But as we have seen, Igenuity is up to the task and is approaching its 70th flight, which is expected to take place later this week.