On April 21, nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the Wit Mars helicopter completed its 26th flight to Mars on the first anniversary of its first flight. The 26th flight has a horizontal distance of 360 meters, a maximum flight altitude of 8 meters, a maximum ground speed of 3.8 meters per second, and a flight time of 159 seconds.
According to NASA records, since its successful maiden flight last April, Witty has flown 6,184 meters, with a total flight duration of about 49.2 minutes. The maximum flight altitude is 12 meters, and the maximum ground speed is 5.5 meters per second.
The 26th flight came on April 19 this year, a year after the first flight to Mars. On April 19 last year, the Witty Mars helicopter completed its first flight to Mars, which was the first time a powered aircraft flew on another planet, and its first flight was no less significant than the Wright brothers' first test flight on Earth in 1903.
The small solar helicopter, weighing only 1.8 kilograms and costing as much as $85 million, was the first drone to be sent to another planet. The Martian atmosphere is thin, only 1% of the density of The Earth's atmosphere. Therefore, the Witty was designed to be very light, the rotor blades were large, and the rotation was very fast. NASA says the propeller blades of a helicopter on Earth spin an average of 400-500 revolutions per minute. The blades of the Witty rotate at a rate of 2500 revolutions per minute.
Originally planned to try test flights five times in 30 Martian days (31 Earth days), NASA extended its mission to September this year due to its good performance, allowing Witty to use Witty as a terrain reconnaissance probe to explore the way for NASA's Perseverance rover.
The Perseverance rover has arrived near the Ancient River Delta at Jezero Crater and will conduct new scientific expeditions. Since the delta was about 40 meters above the bottom of the crater, Perseverance was looking for the best route to climb the delta. There are currently two options forward, and regardless of which route is chosen to board the delta, the team will conduct a detailed scientific survey, including collecting core samples.
Source: The Paper