The martian helicopter Ingenuity made the nineteenth flight in a row and the first after a local dust storm.
The drone flew 62 meters in almost a hundred seconds and demonstrated that it was fully operational.
Ingenuity landed on Mars in April 2021, having made 19 flights since then, although only five were originally planned.
It is assumed that the device will work as an aerial reconnaissance until its condition becomes critical
The results obtained will help in the design of new drones for Mars and Saturn's moon Titan.
The nineteenth flight of the helicopter was supposed to take place on January 5, 2022.
However, it was postponed no earlier than January 23 due to an impending powerful local dust storm, which was recorded by the rover and the MRO orbiter.
It turned out to be the right decision - the storm passed over the Lake crater, where the drone is located, a few days after the date of the transfer
The storm caused a sharp drop in the density of the air mixture below the safe threshold for the helicopter.
In addition, the amount of light available to the drone's solar array has dropped by 18% from normal levels.
However, in the end, the new drone flight took place in early February 2022, when the weather conditions became favorable.
The drone flew about 62 meters in 99.98 seconds, getting even closer to its target, the first takeoff site, where it was landed by a rover in April last year.
Source:
NASA: https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1491117225335738370