Mars Chopper Gears For New Mission After Fourth Successful Flight

NASA's tiny 1.8-kilogram Ingenuity helicopter has so far achieved all of its objectives and is now set to take on new ones after four successful flights on Mars, CNN reported on Saturday.

After proving controlled flight is possible on the red planet, the Perseverance rover's aerial sidekick has new orders: scout ahead to explore areas that Perseverance cannot reach -- and assist in the search for past signs of life

The shoebox-sized flying wonder has hovered over Martian soil four times in the last 12 days. It successfully completed its fourth flight on Friday.

In order for the chopper to get off the ground in Mars' thin atmosphere, its rotor blades must spin at a dizzying 2,500 revolutions per minute. That's five times as fast as the rotors of a helicopter on Earth.

The flight was originally scheduled the day before, but Ingenuity couldn't get off the ground. The miniature chopper's flight on April 19 made history as the first powered flight on another planet.

"We're going to gather information on the operational support capability of the helicopter while Perseverance focuses on its science mission," Lori Glaze, chief of NASA's Planetary Science Division, told reporters, according to Phys Org.

During its fourth flight, Ingenuity climbed to its normal altitude of 16 feet and then cruised south for 436 feet. It passed over sand ripples, small craters and rocks as it took photos of the Martian surface using its black-and-white navigation camera system.

Ingenuity, built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, left Earth on July 30 attached to the underbelly of the Perseverance rover. The two traveled 294 million miles together, landing on February in Mars' Jezero Crater -- a region that was once a lake.

"We will be celebrating each day that ingenuity survives and operates beyond the original window," BBC quoted MiMi Aung, Ingenuity's project manager, as saying.