NASA Mars helicopter nails 12th flight, scouts ahead for Perseverance rover – CNET [CNET]

August 17, 2021 Thomas Giboney technology

ingenuity1 — Ingenuity snaps a picture of its shadow as it flies over South Séítah.

NASA/JPL

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has done the dozen. Not content to just prove it could fly on Mars, the chopper is now making itself a valuable contributor on the red planet, helping the rover Perseverance in its mission to find signs of ancient microbial life. Rising 32ft above the surface of Mars on Sunday evening, the chopper completed flight 12 in 169 seconds. Nice!

The chopper flew over a region called “South Seitah,” an area that’s home to boulders and rocky outcrops of interest to the Perseverance rover team. NASA’s JPL called the region a “geological wonder.”

A dozen for the books!🚁The #MarsHelicopter’s latest flight took us to the geological wonder that is the “South Séítah” region. It climbed 32.8 ft (10 m) for a total of 169 seconds and flew ~1,476 ft (~450 m) roundtrip to scout the area for @NASAPersevere. https://t.co/cM9xzI8rza pic.twitter.com/SDRVMpOPoo

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) August 17, 2021

“Flying over Seitah South carries substantial risk because of the varied terrain,” Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos wrote in a status update prior to the flight on Sunday. The helicopter’s navigation system was designed to work with relatively flat terrain, so making sense out of rougher landscapes can be a challenge. The rotorcraft has run into some technical difficulties, but survived them all so far.

“When we choose to accept the risks associated with such a flight, it is because of the correspondingly high rewards,” Tzanetos said Sunday. “Knowing that we have the opportunity to help the Perseverance team with science planning by providing unique aerial footage is all the motivation needed.”

The risks of flight 12 were easily managed by Ingenuity, which hasn’t stopped delivering record flights since it first took to the air back on April 20.