Ingenuity undertakes 8th flight on the Mars
NASA’s experimental Mars helicopter called Ingenuity undertook its 8th flight on Red Planet.
Highlights
- Most recent flight was made by Ingenuity to Mars was on June 21, 2021.
- During the flight, Ingenuity remained aloft for 77.4 seconds.
- It flew 525 feet and landed about 440 feet away from Perseverance rover.
- Ingenuity was originally designed to fly only five times. But its steady successes made agency to extend its mission and experiment with more ambitious flights.
What is Ingenuity?
Ingenuity is a small robotic helicopter which is operating on Mars under NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. It successfully completed first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet besides Earth on April 19, 2021. As of June 22, it has successfully completed eight flights. A solar-charged battery-powered coaxial drone rotorcraft is serving as a technology and operations demonstration which will help in flying probes on future missions to Mars. Ingenuity was built by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA. It travelled to Mars attached to underside of Perseverance rover.
Perseverance rover
It is a car-sized Mars rover, to explore Jezero crater on Mars under NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Rover was launched on July 30, 2020 and was landed to Mars on February 18, 2021. Perseverance has been active on Mars for 122 sols or 125 Earth days since its landing, as of June 2021.
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Month: Current Affairs - June, 2021