Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California have released Ingenuity helicopter's first audio recording ahead of its fifth test flight, Hypebeast and RepublicWorld reported Monday.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Perseverance Mars rover used one of its two powerful microphones to listen as the shoebox-sized helicopter flew for a fourth time April 30.
During that flight, Ingenuity's rotors spun at 2,537 revolutions a minute. It flew an 872-foot round trip. In the audio recording, the sound from the chopper's blades was isolated and volume increased for clearer sound. The sound changes as a result of the Doppler effect.
But unlike its April 30 flight - and the three others before it - its May 7 journey was one-way. After reaching its destination, Ingenuity hovered up to 33 feet - twice as high as before - taking photographs and then descended to a new landing zone.
Mission controllers say Ingenuity has performed above expectations in all its five test flights so far. While many test flights were carried out on Earth, the mini-drone was launched to demonstrate that it could actually fly on a planet 315 million kilometers away from home.
Ingenuity is the first controlled and powered aircraft to fly on another planet. It landed on Mars - tucked under the belly of Perseverance rover - Feb. 18. NASA has extended the "Marschopper's" mission by at least a month.
"Sound adds a new dimension to space exploration," JPL said. The audio clip allows scientists to hear and get a sense of how their machinery is performing. Perseverance will attempt to record more audio of the helicopter in the future.
