It’s already happened just over a year after perseverance and ingenuity arrived on the red planet and although not as much information about the mission has been produced recently as in its first months, the truth is that both facilities are continuing their operations on the surface of Mars, advancing in a project that has once again shown that engineering that will do its best , can get us to the stars.

The last example of this is another mission that the Ingenuity will have to undertake, the helicopter that accompanies the laboratory. But before we talk about the mission, which will represent his 25 yearsThis is a good time to remember that NASA’s original plans were that the helicopter would be capable of five flights. As early as April last year, however, those in charge of the mission verified that its life could be extended beyond what was originally planned, which is a specialty of NASA, as we have already verified with Hubble.

As you may have read in the previous paragraph, Ingenuity is now preparing for its 25th flight, thus multiplying by five what was originally expected of him. And it’s because, having remained in operation all this time, the Ingenuity is now using its ability to fly above the ground to explore possible paths that Perseverance will take later.

And to show that it is still in top form as well JPL informed about itIngenuity will soon take place its the longest flight yet, a total of 704 meters, 80 more than its longest flight so far. This will be possible due to seasonal changes on the red planet, as after the Martian summer, the density of its atmosphere increases with respect to its state in recent months, allowing Ingenuity to stay in the air with less effort.

Ingenuity and perseverance now aim the area of ​​the Jezero crater, where water was abundant in very, very ancient times. The goal, of course, is to look for evidence of whether there was life. The Ingenuity will therefore act as an advanced guard, and after the reconnaissance, Perseverance will follow in its footsteps. As we will read, the flight plan is already loaded in the helicopter, so we can expect the flight to take place in the coming days as soon as the technicians decide that there are suitable circumstances.

At this point, it is very gratifying to recall that the Ingenuity, in its very small baggage, carries a small fragment of Flyer I, the plane with which the Wright brothers. And that’s because even though they probably never imagined something like that in their lives, there is a direct line that connects them to that small helicopter which managed to fly to Mars.