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| Mars helicopter Ingenuity begins its second flight on April 22. (NASA) |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA flew for a second time the first powered aircraft on Mars Thursday demonstrating that humans can control flight within the planet's ultra thin atmosphere.
The tissue box-size Mars helicopter Ingenuity transmitted a few images during its flight to its host, the Perseverance rover. Located 215 feet away, Perseverance transmitted the final commands from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory one hour before the flight.
At an exact moment, the copter's twin rotor blades were spun up to 2,537 rpm. A final system's check was performed as the blades cut through Mars' ultra thin atmosphere.
Likened to the Wright Brothers first powered flight, Ingenuity took off from the Martian surface at 5:33 a.m. EDT, and stayed aloft for 51.9 seconds. The controlled flight flew a distance of seven feet and up to an altitude of 16 feet.
“The helicopter came to a stop, hovered in place, and made turns to point its camera in different directions,” Ingenuity’s chief pilot Håvard Grip said on Thursday. “Then it headed back to the center of the airfield to land."
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