FILE PHOTO: NASA’s Perseverance dropped its debris shield, uncovering the first off-Earth rotocraft Ingenuity. Image: Twitter/@NASAPersevere
WASHINGTON — NASA’s Perseverance rover has for the first time captured the low-pitched whirring of the Ingenuity helicopter’s blades as it flies through the rarefied Martian atmosphere.
The space agency on Friday released new footage shot by the six-wheeled robot of its rotorcraft companion making its fourth flight on April 30 — this time accompanied by an audio track.
The nearly three-minute-long video begins with the low rumble of the wind blowing across the Jezero Crater, where Perseverance landed in February on a mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life.
Ingenuity then takes off, and its blades can be heard humming softly as they spin at nearly 2,400 rpm on the 872-foot (262 meters) roundtrip.
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The mission’s engineers weren’t sure they would pick up the flight sound at all, given that Perseverance was parked 262 feet (80 meters) aware from the takeoff and landing spot.
The Martian atmosphere is about one percent the density of our planet’s, making everything much quieter than on Earth.
