Ingenuity, NASA's Mars helicopter, is set to take off again for its first flight of 2022.
According to mission team members in a blog post, the 4-pound Ingenuity's next Red Planet sortie - its 19th overall - will take place as early as Friday (Jan. 7).
During the 100-second trip, which will take the miniature chopper out of a rocky basin known as South Sétah, over a hill, and onto a plateau, ingenuity will travel approximately 207 feet.
Each flight on Mars is a tremendous miracle. The chopper's first flight proved it could operate. The next flights put it to the test. The latest flights have been in service of its companion Perseverance rover.
"While short, the flight has a challenging start due to featureless sandy terrain that the helicopter currently sits on," Martin Cacan, Ingenuity pilot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, wrote in the blog post.
According to Cacan, the current mission goal is to reach the Jezero river delta to assist the Perseverance rover in course planning and scientific discoveries.
Initially chosen for its lack of rocks, the area is now so empty of rock that cautions were issued during Flight 18's landing owing to inadequate features to follow in the visual navigation, Cacan explained. As a result, fault protection parameters will be modified to reduce the risk of a mid-ascent landing.
On Feb. 18, 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater alongside Ingenuity. Despite Mars' thin atmosphere, the small rotorcraft quickly completed five technology-demonstrating flights, proving that aerial exploration is viable on the planet. Team members are stretching their limits and scouting Jezero terrain for the life-hunting, sample-caching Perseverance during a lengthy expedition.
Jezero hosted a large lake and a river delta billions of years ago. The Perseverance crew is eager to investigate the ruins of that delta, which could include indications of Mars life if any existed at all, if any ever existed. If all goes according to plan, Ingenuity will assist the rover in getting there.
Since their arrival on Mars in early 2021, Ingenuity and Perseverance have shown to be an excellent pair. As the rover continues to roll and collect rock samples, and the helicopter serves as a scout from the air, the new year will be filled with exploration and scientific study.
To date, Ingenuity has completed 18 flights on Mars, the first on Apr. 19 and the most recent on Dec. 15. During these missions, the helicopter flew for about 33 minutes and covered 2.37 miles of Red Planet ground.
Check out this amazing NASA video of Ingenuity's Flight 13 to get a sense of what it looks like while it's flying across Mars.
