The tiny Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to power through its flights. The helicopter was originally scheduled for five flights on the red planet. Ingenuity is on its way to meet up with Perseverance, and in the future it will help the rover's mission to search for evidence of ancient life on Mars by scouting out driving routes and objects of scientific interest.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote about the recent achievement of the Mars helicopter completing its 23rd excursion. It flew over 358 meters. The data from Ingenuity will help the NASAPersevere team find potential science targets.
23 flights and counting! #MarsHelicopter successfully completed its 23rd excursion. It flew for 129.1 seconds over 358 meters. Data from Ingenuity in the new region it’s headed to will help the @NASAPersevere team find potential science targets. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/I63LrizOEc
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) March 25, 2022
The Perseverance rover is on its way to the Jezero crater. The perfect place for life to emerge was the delta, which was warm and shallow millions of years ago. If there ever was life on Mars, the delta is a likely location. The geological makeup of the delta makes it good at preserving signs of life. It's the best place we've found so far to look for evidence of life.
Perseverance can be helped by the Ingenuity helicopter. The rover has to drive slowly because it has to avoid rocks and other obstacles which could damage it and shorten its life. Perseverance can be helped by Ingenuity scout ahead. Ingenuity can spot interesting looking targets for Perseverance.
The Jezero river delta campaign will be the biggest challenge the Ingenuity team faces since first flight at Mars.
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