Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Aside from a couple of software errors that temporarily shut down its propellors prematurely, the Mars helicopter Ingenuity has performed brilliantly on the Red Planet. Deployed from the belly of the Perseverance rover a few weeks after landing, Ingenuity performed its maiden flight on April 19, lifted 10 feet (three meters) into the thin Martian air, hovering for about 40 seconds and then making a perfect landing. All was recorded by Perseverance, parked nearby. Since then, Ingenuity has made many more flights, each one pushing the envelope bit-by-bit, flying farther, higher, and faster. Ingenuity’s mission has now been provided an extension, planned through August, to its original month-long mission.