Tact
NASA's Witty Mars helicopter completed its 22nd flight last weekend and has flown more than 40 minutes on Mars.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on March 22 that the Witty Mars helicopter completed its 22nd flight last weekend with a flight time of 101.4 seconds and a maximum flight altitude of 10 meters, and the team plans to fly again as early as later this week.
According to NASA records, since its successful maiden flight last April, Witty has flown more than 40 minutes (about 2,430 seconds) on Mars.
Perseverance
The Small Solar Helicopter weighs only 1.8 kilograms and costs as much as $85 million. It was the first drone to be sent to another planet, and was originally scheduled to try test flights 5 times in 30 Martian days (31 Earth days), but due to its good performance, NASA extended its mission to September this year, allowing Witty to use "Witty" as a reconnaissance terrain probe to explore the way for NASA's Perseverance rover.
Cores collected by perseverance
The Perseverance rover, which has taken its eighth core sample, will head to the Paleo river delta for its next scientific expedition, where it will take topographical photographs, which its AutoNav system will use to help the rover avoid any obstacles during its 5-kilometer trek.
The Witty Mars helicopter must first reach this area. Once in the delta, Wit's first mission was to help determine which of the two dry channels the Perseverance rover chose to drive to the top of the delta. In addition to helping to choose a route, the data provided by the helicopter will help perseverance team assess potential scientific targets.