NASA’s Mars helicopter gears up for 19th flight on Red Planet

NASA's Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, is gearing up for its 19th flight on Red Planet which is set for no earlier than January 7. The upcoming flight, which also marks the first of 2022, will take the vehicle out of the South Seitah basin, across the dividing ridge, and up onto the main plateau.

It's time for more #MarsHelicopter flights! Ingenuity is gearing up for Flight 19 - the first one of 2022. The rotorcraft's path will carry it out of the South Séítah basin over a ridgeline & up onto a plateau. Flight 19 is set for no earlier than Jan. 7. https://t.co/dCAzG17OuW pic.twitter.com/tB9MfsNqPU

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) January 5, 2022

According to Martin Cacan, Ingenuity Pilot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the precise landing target for Flight 19 is near the landing site of Flight 8. This flight is the third necessary to cover the same ground flown during Flight 9 - in the opposite direction and it will last about 100 seconds at a groundspeed of 2.2 mph (1 meter per second) and altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) while taking 9 new Return-To-Earth (RTE) images.

Finally, the flight will turn nearly 180 degrees to flip the RTE camera to a forward-facing orientation for future flights toward the river delta.

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter landed on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, and on April 19, 2021, the solar-powered helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.