The Ingenuity Mars helicopter has gone far and beyond its original task of flying just five times above the Martian surface to prove that electric helicopters like it could give us a valuable new tool in exploring the surface of distant planets.
It has carried out many times that number of flights. In its 25th flight, the tiny four-pound helicopter covered just over 2,300 feet at a brisk 12 mph, and took just over 2.5 minutes to complete.
The video shared by NASA shows the longest and fastest flight yet captured by the drone.
Only NASA's Ingenuity helicopter could give us that kind of perspective.
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 reached top speed in less than three seconds after completing its latest flight at an altitude of 33 feet. The terrain underneath it can be seen changing from ripples of sand to fields of rock.
The helicopter has to prepare for winter. The team at JPL suspects that the first ever break up of the helicopter's communications link may have been caused by the cold weather.
The team writes in a recent post that they are operating far outside their original design limits. Each sol could be the last.
NASA Mars Helicopter Delivers a View of the Red Planet.
Mars helicopter flies over NASA wreckage.
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