NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has completed its second flight, in which it lifted off the ground and hovered, just like in its first test flight.
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However, this time, the helicopter climbed to a higher altitude and performed a lateral flight.
The second successful flight is another major breakthrough for the helicopter team, which just a few days ago faced issues with a software update to be able to get Ingenuity into the air.
Nasa had originally aimed to conduct the first flight around April 11. But a problem arose the day before that flight, when a safety system inside the helicopter terminated a rotorcraft test.
Engineers then spent the next week trying to eliminate the problem with a change to the command sequence and an update to the software powering the drone.
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Finally on Monday, Ingenuity took off and hovered briefly before landing safely on the ground again. It was the first time humanity had made a controlled powered flight to another planet.
The new test made the helicopter hover slightly higher, to a height of five meters. When it reached that height, it hovered for a moment and then tilted so that it could move sideways for two meters.
From there, he used his color camera to take a series of photos, which NASA will receive from the helicopter. These photos have not yet been released, but NASA advised its followers to “stay tuned!”
«While capturing the images was part of the flight plan, we had to prioritize capturing the flight data (and that smaller black and white image) first. We'll share them as soon as we have them!»
Ingenuity then returned safely back to the planet's surface.
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Nasa plans to conduct a series of such tests in the coming weeks, during what it calls “Ingenuity Month.” These tests will see the helicopter gradually fly higher, farther, and for longer.
Data from each of the flights will be used to inform future engineering, including even more spacecraft designed to fly to other worlds.
