It is finally possible to hear the hum of Ingenuity flying over Mars: NASA has in fact published the audio of the fourth flight on April 30 recorded by a microphone of the Perseverance rover, which has thus become the first spacecraft to capture the sounds of a another spacecraft during a mission to another planet. Despite being at a distance of 80 meters, the rover managed to record the faint noise of the drone blades, which NASA technicians have isolated and turned up the volume to be able to better distinguish it from the breath of the wind that sweeps the Jezero crater. With this audio we enter a new dimension of exploration of the Red Planet, where on Friday (at 21:26 Italian time) Ingenuity will attempt its fifth flight: it will be a one-way trip of 110 seconds, which will take it to a new site landing.
According to the NASA program, Ingenuity will take off from the airfield dedicated to the Wright brothers, the same as the previous flights: it will rise to five meters in height and move south, retracing the same route as the fourth flight last week. It will cover a distance of 129 meters, but instead of returning to the starting point like the other times, it will try to climb up to 10 meters (a new record) to take color and black and white images. After 110 seconds of flight, it will land at a new site to begin a new phase of work, aimed at demonstrating its ability to support other missions. In this way the drone will ideally retrace the same steps as the Wright brothers, who at the beginning of the twentieth century, after some test flights,they began to evaluate the practical applications of their technology up to the first passenger flight, demonstrating the possibility of exploring from an aerial perspective. To know the outcome of Ingenuity's new venture, it will be necessary to wait for the data to arrive on Earth, scheduled for Saturday at 1:31 am Italian time.
