Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Mission has been extended by NASA

NASA has announced that it extends a mission to the helicopter of the ingenuity that has operated on the surface of the red planet for days now. NASA has announced that it will make a helicopter fly for 30 additional days with the potential for more testing time through an extended mission. NASA said that the expanded mission will test the ability of the helicopter to lurk, it may mean exploring the planet for interesting sites for potential exploration in the future.

Initially, the ingenuity was intended to operate for 30 days on the surface of Mars as a technological demonstration mission to test if controlled flights were possible on other planets. There were some concerns that the helicopter might not fly at all considering how thin the Mars atmosphere was, but the helicopter was well done in a test flight. With an expanded mission, NASA will shift ingenuity into what he calls “operating demonstration phase” to test additional capabilities for aircraft.

NASA dir. The Science Division Planetary Lori Glaze said that there was room to expand the demonstration of ingenuity into a new phase after assessing the perseverance science strategy. With ingenuity entering the new operational demonstration phase, the team that manages the helicopter says that “is very happy and proud.” Mimi Aung Ingenuit Project Manager said that it was like ingenuity was a pass from the demo test phase to a new demo phase where the team could show how rotorcraft could be used for exploration and science missions.

So far, the intelligence flight test has seen up from the surface and drifts, does not move very far from the perseverance rover. Rover has taken several images of Mars and the surrounding landscape. The intelligence team has carried out three successful test flights so far and initially set to stop after 30 days and as many as five test flights so that perseverance can switch to its science mission.