An unidentified creature clings to an ingenious helicopter on the surface of Mars

On Saturday, September 24, 2022, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed 33 aircraft^e Journey over the red planet. But something caught the attention of the mission teams. A foreign body that has not yet been identified.

Ingenuity, the small helicopter was transported to Mars by NASA’s Perseverance Vehicle, departed on five test flights over the surface of the red planet. The first event was held on April 19, 2021. It was a resounding success. which many others followed. Until this Saturday, September 24, 2022, creativity then flew to… 33^e Once !

The trip to Mars took him 567, or 567^e Mars day Perseverance mission to Mars. The craft soared to 10 meters above the surface of Mars and covered, in about 55 seconds, more than 110 meters at a cruising speed of 5 m/s. The goal that day was to redirect the helicopter.

Investigations to understand

What his navigation camera noticed surprised members of the team that analyzed the data sent by the Mars helicopter. A small piece of something unknown, labeled by NASA as foreign body wreck (FOD), understanding of “foreign body wreck». An object whose existence seems even stranger to scientists and engineers because it did not appear on the images returned by Ingenuity during its previous expedition.

The images show that the object, which was initially attached to one of the helicopter’s legs, ended up falling to the ground. However, telemetry data from the flight and all post-flight analyzes have yet to enable the teams to locate any damage to cleverness. Investigations are still underway to try to understand.