Ingenuity Helicopter Prepares for 14th Flight Written 23 September 2021
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter on Mars as viewed by the Perseverance rover's rear Hazard Camera on 4 April 2021. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
SPACE reports that NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter “is getting ready for its 14th Red Planet flight, but the thinning Martian air is making such sorties more and more challenging.” The Ingenuity helicopter will test “higher rotor spin speeds to see if it can keep flying in rapidly changing seasonal atmospheric conditions on Mars.” The test flight “is expected to include a rotor speed of roughly 2,700 revolutions per minute (RPM), assuming that a planned ground test of a 2,800 RPM spin goes to plan.”
Full Story (SPACE)