Ingenuity aces its 43rd Mars flight – its longest in ten months
Reported by Mike Wall
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew yet again on 16 February, covering more Red Planet ground than it had on a single sortie in nearly a year. The flight was the 43rd overall for the 1.8-kilogram Ingenuity, which landed on the floor of Mars’ Jezero crater with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. This latest hop covered 390 metres (1,280 feet) of Red Planet ground, according to Ingenuity’s flight log. Ingenuity hadn’t flown that far since 29 April 2022, when it travelled 418 metres (1,371 feet) across Jezero’s floor.