Enlarge image
»Ingenuity«: The mini helicopter has completed its first flight on another planet
Photo: --- / dpa
The US space agency Nasa has released the first audio recording of a flight of the Mars helicopter "Ingenuity".
The "Perseverance" rover had brought the mini-helicopter to Mars in February.
Now the rover has also recorded the noises during the fourth flight of "Ingenuity" with one of its microphones, announced NASA.
The mission is a novelty in two respects:
It is the
first audio recording from a Mars flight
And the first to make
a spacecraft on another planet from another spacecraft
.
"Ingenuity" took off for the first time on April 19, making it the first aircraft to fly on another planet.
Since then, the helicopter has already taken off three more times, but it also made a false start.
His mission, originally planned to last around 30 days, has been extended by around 30 days.
"Gold mine for a further understanding of the Martian atmosphere"
The helicopter cannot be heard particularly well, however, because "Perseverance" recorded from around 80 meters away and the thin Martian atmosphere and the wind also dampen and drown out the flight noises.
But even the little that can be heard is a "very good surprise" and a "gold mine for further understanding of the Martian atmosphere," said scientist David Mimoun.
Nasa shared the sound recording on Twitter:
"Perseverance" (in German, for example: stamina) had previously sent audio recordings of his landing, of trying out his laser and of a trip over Mars to Earth.
The rover - and the helicopter "Ingenuity" (in German roughly: ingenuity) were touched down at the end of February - after 203 days of flight and 472 million kilometers traveled - with a risky maneuver in a dry Martian lake called "Jezero Crater".
The development and construction of the rover, which cost the equivalent of around 2.2 billion euros, took eight years.
He will search for traces of earlier microbial life on Mars and research the climate and geology of the planet.
koe / dpa
