NASA Ingenuity Helicopter Second Flight Test A Success; Reaches New Milestones Toward Martian Flight

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its second test flight on Mars and reached new milestones, toppling its own record from the first flight.

The autonomous helicopter was able to fly on Mars at a higher altitude, hovered for a longer time, and was able to perform a sideways movement.

NASA Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars: Milestones Reached on Second Flight

The Ingenuity Helicopter's experimental second flight on Mars took off at 5:33 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Apr. 22, and completed 51.9 seconds after, Gizmodo reported on the same day.

According to NASA's blog, which was posted immediately after the flight, the Ingenuity Helicopter was able to climb at the height of 16 feet (5 meters), toppling its previous record of 10 feet (3 meters) above the surface.

The Ingenuity Helicopter was also able to accelerate sideways for 7 feet (2 meters) after hovering briefly and slightly tilting at 5-degrees and letting the counter-rotating rotors' thrust push its body sideways.

It was also able to head back to the center of the airfield before successfully landing, marking the end of the second test flight.

In addition, images of the Ingenuity Helicopter's second test flight were captured differently from the first, which allowed the team to confirm that the success of the flight.

"For the first flight, one of the cameras was fully zoomed in on the takeoff and landing zone," Justin Maki, Perseverance project imaging scientist and Mastcam-Z deputy principal investigator at JPL, explained, "For the second flight we zoomed that camera out a bit for a wider field of view to capture more of the flight."

Bob Balaram, chief engineer for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said that the Ingenuity Helicopter's second test flight met their team's expectations while proving that their prior computer modeling was accurate.

"We have two flights of Mars under our belts, which means that there is still a lot to learn during this month of Ingenuity," he added.

The successful second test flight was performed just three days after its first, and more flights will be slated in the near future.

NASA Ingenuity Helicopter's Previous Milestones

After overcoming pre-flight issues that caused its first test flight delay, NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter had been raking in milestones on Mars, which parallels the Wright Brother's first flight on Earth.

On Apr. 19, the Ingenuity Helicopter makes history as the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet.

The momentous feat prompted the Ingenuity team to name the Ingenuity Helicopter's flight area as the "Wright Brothers Field," in honor of the Wright Brothers.

"Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first flight on our planet, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world," announced Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Associate Administrator for Science.

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Written by Leigh Mercer