Ingenuity goes solo for its fifth flight

First one-way journey sets new altitude record

NASA’s Ingenuity rotorcraft has been busy breaking records on Mars once again.

The intrepid helicopter made its fifth flight earlier today, travelling 129 metres to the south of its position near Van Zyl Overlook, scouting the ground ahead of a planned traverse in that direction by the Perseverance rover. Instead of returning to its takeoff point, Ingenuity landed at the end of its journey well south of Perseverance, but not before ascending to a height of 10 metres above the ground - a new altitude record - in order to take high-resolution images of the terrain below. The images will be used by the Perseverance rover’s mission planners at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California to plan future traverses.

Ingenuity in flight, 7 May, as seen by one of Perseverance’s cameras. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Today’s flight represents a significant departure for Ingenuity, which was originally envisaged as a simple technology demonstrator. Having met all of its engineering objectives during its first flights last month, mission planners have decided to extend its working life, assessing its suitability for such tasks as scouting, aerial observations of areas not accessible by a rover, and detailed stereo imaging from atmospheric altitudes. The lessons learned will inform what is now certain to be a second generation of Mars-capable rotorcraft.