Ingenuity Was Supposed to Have Only 5 Flights. Watch Its Glorious 25th Flight on Mars!

The engineers of Ingenuity had a plan for five flights when they packed the helicopter for the trip to Mars.

It was normal for NASA's mission parameters to be set conservatively, and that didn't mean more flights weren't on the cards. NASA extended the mission 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884

At the time of writing, it has completed 28 flights, but Flight 25 was the absolute corker. On 8 April, Ingenuity broke records for distance and speed, soaring 704 meters (2,310 feet) and up to 5.5 meters per second (12 mph).

The images it sent home were used to make a video showing a robotic helicopter's view of a flight across Mars.

For our record-breaking flight, Ingenuity's downward-looking navigation camera provided us with a breathtaking sense of what it would feel like gliding 33 feet above the surface of Mars at 12 miles per hour.

The helicopter did not start taking pictures until about one second into the flight. Ingenuity uses its camera for navigation and doesn't switch on until the helicopter reaches an altitude of about 1 meter to avoid being confused by dust at takeoff or landing.

In the video, Ingenuity rises to an altitude of 33 meters. Within three seconds, it reaches its maximum speed. Ingenuity could make a safe landing after the helicopter flies over some rippling sand, followed by rocky fields and relatively flat and featureless ground.

The flight parameters were sent to Ingenuity by the helicopter's team of pilots on the ground. The time lag between Earth and Mars means that no mid-course corrections can be taken.

A year ago, we saw a glitch in the helicopter's image processing that caused a lag between what Ingenuity was seeing and where it actually was. Thankfully, built-in failsafes allowed Ingenuity to land safely so that NASA could fix the problem before the next flight.

Since then, the little helicopter has been flying very smooth, even in very alien atmospheric conditions to those here on Earth. We still marvel at how humans can build something that can fly in Mars, which has an atmospheric volume of less than 1 percent. Ingenuity, indeed!