Creativity is making a third trip over Mars and that’s captured

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A small NASA helicopter cleverness Made its third flight in Mars The US space agency said on Sunday that it is moving more and faster than it has been in its previous two rounds, with a maximum of 7 kilometers per hour.

After the first and nearly second flyby, this time the machine traveled 50 meters, reaching a speed of 2 meters per second, or 7 km / h.

“Today’s trip was what we had planned, but it was not the least believable,” he said in a statement. Dave Lavery, Program Director, from NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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The Perseverance in the rover, Which arrived in the small 1.8 kg helicopter, filmed this third 80-second flight

On Sunday, NASA announced that clips of this video will be sent to Earth in the next few days.

This side scrolling flight was a test of the helicopter’s autonomous navigation system, which performs this trajectory based on previously received information.

If creativity flies too fast, the flight algorithm cannot determine terrain, “NASA explained. The very low density of Mars air (1% of Earth’s atmosphere) forced NASA teams to design an ultra-light helicopter that rotates its blades much faster than an ordinary machine lift it off the ground.

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The space agency is now announcing preparations for a fourth flight. Operations are expected to become increasingly challenging and drive ingenuity to the limit.

Whatever happens, after a month at the most, the creativity experiment will stop to allow the persistent rover to continue its main mission: to search for traces of ancient life on Mars.

The third trip in the history books
Our # helicopter It continues to set records, flies faster and farther. The space helicopter demonstrates critical capabilities that could enable adding an air dimension to future missions to Mars and beyond. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/Uaxrr23Rfh

– NASA JPL (@ NASAJPL) April 25, 2021

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