Footage captured by Ingenuity on 8th April has recently been sent to Earth from Mars and the folks at NASA were kind enough to share the footage with us all.

The footage is notable as it showcases Ingenuity’s fastest and longest flight on Mars to date. The helicopter travelled 704 metres at a speed of 5.5 metres per second.

In the video below you can see what it would be like to fly 10 metres off of the Martian surface.

If the video seems short, that’s because it was sped up five times. In reality the flight lasted 161.3 seconds.

While this is fantastic, the fate of the little helicopter on Mars was unknown at the top of May. According to NASA, this was due to a communications drop out that was likely triggered by increased dust in the air which in turn blocks sunlight from hitting solar arrays. When this happens, Ingenuity enters a low power state to preserve it’s battery power to keep mission critical components warm and functional.

“The dust diminishes the amount of sunlight hitting the solar array, reducing Ingenuity’s ability to recharge its six lithium-ion batteries. When the battery pack’s state of charge dropped below a lower limit, the helicopter’s field-programmable gate array (FPGA) was powered down,” NASA explained.

Communication with the helicopter has since been re-established with NASA stating that the helicopter is receiving adequate energy from its solar arrays. The team at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory are said to be preparing for the helicopter’s next flight.

Despite it’s tiny size and arriving on Mars as a stowaway (an intentional stowaway if we’re honest) aboard Perseverance, Ingenuity continues to impress. Perhaps one day the work Ingenuity is doing now, will help humans traverse Mars through the air as well.