NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completes 50th flight

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first aircraft on another world has completed its 50th flight on Mars, exceeding all expectations, the US space agency said.

The Ingenuity aircraft has reached the half-century mark on April 13, travelling over 322.2 metres in 145.7 seconds.

The helicopter also achieved a new altitude record of 59 feet (18 meters) before alighting near the half-mile-wide (800-meter-wide) "Belva Crater."

With Flight 50 in the mission logbook, the helicopter team plans to perform another repositioning flight before exploring the "Fall River Pass" region of Jezero Crater.

"Just as the Wright brothers continued their experiments well after that momentous day at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Ingenuity team continues to pursue and learn from the flight operations of the first aircraft on another world," said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington said in a statement.

"Ingenuity landed on the Red Planet in February 2021 attached to the belly of NASA's Mars Perseverance rover and will soon mark the two-year anniversary of its first flight, which took place on April 19, 2021. Designed as a technology demonstration that would fly no more than five times, the helicopter was intended to prove powered, controlled flight on another planet was possible. But Ingenuity exceeded expectations and transitioned into being an operations demonstration," NASA said.

"Every time Ingenuity goes airborne, it covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve. Imagery from the helicopter has not only demonstrated how aircraft could serve as forward scouts for future planetary expeditions, but it has even come in handy for the Perseverance team," the space agency added.

"This video shows the dust initially kicked up by the helicopter's spinning rotors, as well as Ingenuity taking off, hovering, and beginning its 1,444-foot (440-meter) journey to the southwest," the space agency explained.

"The rotorcraft landed - off camera - at Airfield 'Iota," it added.

NASA said that beyond facing more challenging terrain, Ingenuity will also fly at a greater frequency in the coming days because the helicopter needs to remain within electronic earshot of the rover.