Samantha Hatch, human resources specialist Nagin Cox, engineering operations deputy team chief With its tech demo complete, Ingenuity transitions to a new operations demonstration phase to explore how future rovers and aerial explorers can work together. After that, the helicopter successfully performed additional experimental flights of incrementally farther distance and greater altitude. It was a major milestone: the very first powered, controlled flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and, in fact, the first such flight in any world beyond Earth. For the first flight on April 19, 2021, Ingenuity took off, climbed to about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground, hovered in the air briefly, completed a turn, and then landed.

The helicopter completed its technology demonstration after three successful flights. Once the rover reached a suitable 'airfield' location, it released Ingenuity to the surface so it could perform a series of test flights over a 30-Martian-day experimental window. It hitched a ride to Mars on the Perseverance rover. The Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, is a technology demonstration to test powered, controlled flight on another world for the first time.

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