The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has made it by means of a tough winter and is again to flying, not too long ago finishing its thirty third flight because it landed on Mars together with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. The helicopter has been making regularly additional flights because it got here again into operations following a break from June to August, finishing flight 31 on September 6, adopted by flight 32 on September 17 and flight 33 on September 24.

For flight 33 the helicopter lined over 111 meters in just below a minute, with the helicopter heading towards the Jezero river delta to rejoin the Perseverance rover.

Over the weekend, #MarsHelicopter efficiently accomplished Flight 33! The rotorcraft reached an altitude of 10 meters (33 ft) and traveled 111.24 meters (365 ft) in 55.2 seconds. If you look intently at this picture, you’ll see Ingenuity’s leg and tiny shadow. pic.twitter.com/4UwPs1bAcV

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) September 27, 2022

There was an surprising passenger alongside for a part of this flight although, as a chunk of unknown particles obtained itself caught across the helicopter’s leg. The international object particles (FOD) doesn’t appear to be from the helicopter, so it’s at present a thriller what it’s made from and what its supply could possibly be.

The picture under was taken by the helicopter’s navigation digital camera, known as Navcam. You can nearly see every of the helicopter’s high legs within the very nook of the picture, that are two of the 4 legs that the helicopter sits on when it’s on the bottom. Attached to the leg on the correct is a small piece of particles, which seems to be virtually prefer it could possibly be plastic, though NASA says it’s not certain what the particles is or the place it got here from.

NASA confirmed that this piece of particles hadn’t been seen through the helicopter’s earlier flight, Flight 32, so it appears to have been a latest addition. Fortunately, the particles indifferent itself from the helicopter’s leg and floated away again to the floor through the flight. You can see the total footage displaying the particles falling on the NASA Ingenuity web site.

“All telemetry from the flight and a post-flight search and transfer are nominal and show no indication of vehicle damage,” NASA wrote. “The Ingenuity and Perseverance Mars 2020 teams are working to discern the source of the debris.”

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