New color photos taken by NASA’s Creative Helicopter on Mars

Labatilla

Jul 09, 2021, 5:58 PM

NASA’s innovative Ingenuity Mars helicopter made its ninth flight over the rocky surface of Mars on July 5, capturing color photographs of the landscape for the first time.

to RT

The images show outcrops that show connections between major geological units in the floor of Jezero crater. Scientists believe the formation is the dry bottom of an ancient lake, making it a particularly interesting area to look for signs of life.

According to a July 7 NASA update written by Ingenuity Mars chief pilot, Harvard Grip, the plane broke “records for flight duration and cruising speed” and “nearly four times the distance traveled between two airports.” , which covers 625 metres. In addition, the Ingenuity Mars, weighing just four pounds, flew over terrain that wasn’t mostly flat for the first time, defying the team it was controlling from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Grip asserts that “differences in terrain elevation cause figures to move across the field of view at different speeds, and the creativity transmission algorithm still” assumes “that the ground below is flat,” adding that it “does its best to explain the movement of figures through changes in helicopter movements, which could lead to to errors.

Images taken by Ingenuity Mars will help NASA engineers decide whether to send the Perseverance rover into rocky terrain and sand dunes to collect samples from Earth. And so, in less than three minutes, creativity and perseverance saved the months he would have spent driving to take his own pictures.

“[La misión está] It’s designed to be high risk and high reward, so it makes sense for us to take on that extra risk because of the potential prize.”