When a NASA engineer tells you something they built will last at least thirty days, I’ve come to believe you need to ask them to define “at least.” I’m starting to think they mean “we expect it to last much much longer than this, but the design spec said to make it last thirty days.”

The Ingenuity helicopter on Mars was deployed on its thirty-day mission on April 3 and made its first flight on April 19. That was 132 days ago. It is currently preparing for its twelfth flight and has taken the point position in its exploration team, as it scouts out the terrain for its partner explorer, the Perseverance rover. With its rotor, Ingenuity is showing it fears no sand as it flits over dunes and explores terrain that would be hazardous to a rover. It has even captured cool landscape shots that include Percy. We have links to all of these images on our website, DailySpace.org.

Ingenuity’s twelfth flight will fly along Perseverance’s intended path, taking images that are slightly offset as it flies out and back. These pairs of image tracks will allow the mission team to create 3D views of the landscape; views that will make it possible to better define a safe drive path for the rover that intersects as much awesome science as possible.

This represents an awesome potential future where rovers and helicopters explore Mars together in the ultimate buddy story.

More Information

Better By the Dozen – Ingenuity Takes on Flight 12 (NASA)