NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity completes second flight, soars 'higher'

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ingenuity helicopter successfully carried out its second flight on Mars on April 22. The hop lasted 51.9 seconds facing several challenges including a higher maximum altitude, longer duration, and sideways movement. The success comes after the US space agency successfully completed its first flight Mars flight on April 19.

According to NASA, Ingenuity second flight took off at 5:33 a.m. EDT (2:33 am PDT), or 12:33 p.m local Mars time.  The flight topped out at 10 feet above the surface and climbed to an altitude of 16 feet. After the helicopter hovered, its flight control system performed a slight 5-degree tilt, allowing some of the thrust from the counter-rotating rotors to accelerate the craft sideways for 7 feet. As per the website of NASA, operating an aircraft in a controlled manner at Mars is far more difficult than flying one on Earth.

“The helicopter came to a stop, hovered in place, and made turns to point its camera in different directions,” said Havard Grip, Ingenuity’s chief pilot at JPL. 

“Then it headed back to the center of the airfield to land. It sounds simple, but there are many unknowns regarding how to fly a helicopter on Mars. That’s why we’re here – to make these unknowns known", he added.

New challenges in second flight 

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project is a high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. Bob Balaram, chief engineer for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said that they have carried out two flights of Mars which implies that there is "still a lot to learn during this month of Ingenuity".

“So far, the engineering telemetry we have received and analyzed tell us that the flight met expectations and our prior computer modeling has been accurate,” he said.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity on April 20 became the first-ever aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet after it successfully lifted off on Mars. The tiny rotorcraft hitched a ride on NASA’s Perseverance rover that landed on Mars on 18 February 2021 at 20:55 UTC. The Ingenuity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the success of Inguinity’s historic flight after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

(Image Credits: NASAJPL/Twitter)