Ingenuity helicopter aces 43rd Mars flight, its longest in 10 months

 NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter flew yet again on Thursday (Feb. 16), covering more Red Planet ground than it had on a single sortie in nearly a year.

The flight was the 43rd overall(opens in new tab) for the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity, which landed on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. 

This latest hop covered 1,280 feet (390 meters) of Red Planet ground, according to Ingenuity's flight log(opens in new tab). Ingenuity hadn't flown that far since April 29, 2022, when it traveled 1,371 feet (418 m) across Jezero's floor. 

During its 43 Mars flights to date, Ingenuity has covered a total of 28,968 feet (8,829 m), according to the mission flight log — nearly 5.5 miles (8.9 kilometers). That's quite impressive for a technology demonstration that was originally supposed to fly just five times on the Red Planet.

Looks like the yellow planet in the picture.