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American drone Ingenuity is preparing to make its thirteenth autonomous flight on Mars to get new pictures of the area. About it reported at NASA.
The flight is scheduled to begin on September 5 at 03:08 Moscow time (September 4 at 17:08 US West Coast time). Ingenuity will fly 210 meters at a speed of 3.3 meters per second over the South Seita region in Jezero Crater and take 10 images of the area, which will be transmitted to Earth via the Perseverance rover. The flight duration will be 161 seconds.
Obtaining new photographs will determine if the area is of geological interest for study by the rover.
“We will conduct the flight at a lower altitude – 8 meters compared to 10 meters during the previous flight,” the message says.
During the twelfth flight, which took place in mid-August, the drone successfully completed its mission, covering a distance of 450 meters and taking 10 color images of the terrain. These photographs were also used to plot the rover’s route.
During its stay on Mars, Ingenuity flew 2.67 km, being above the surface of the Red Planet for a total of almost 22 minutes. The ninth flight became the record longest, when the drone covered a distance of 625 meters. During the first flight, the device rose to a height of only three meters and spent 39 seconds in the air.
Ingenuity has a diameter of 1.2 meters and a weight of 1.8 kg. The drone is equipped with two cameras and can hover in the air for 20-30 seconds to take pictures.
The Perseverance rover with Ingenuity on board landed on Mars near the Jezero crater on February 18. This is the fifth NASA rover to be sent to the Red Planet.
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