The chief engineer of the helicopter stated that it is not primarily designed for a "long mission" noting the detrimental effect of repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
The US space agency (NASA) has announced the extension of its ingenuity mini-helicopter mission by an additional month to support the mobile robot perceptions, after the agency successfully demonstrated the possibility of flying over the Red Planet.
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From now on, ingenuity will support the rover in its main mission of searching for signs of past microbial life on Mars, for example, by exploring sites of scientific interest inaccessible to the robot with its wheels, or by identifying the safest route.
"Ingenuity's mission will change from being a" demonstration mission of technical capability "to a" demonstration mission of operational capability, through which we gather information about its potential use in providing operational support "to Persephone, NASA Planetary Science Director Laurie Glees said at a press conference Friday.
Flying vehicles could one day accompany human exploration missions as well, which this new phase would allow for testing. "We will evaluate our findings in 30 days," she added, without ruling out further extension of the experiment after that.
The helicopter's chief engineer Bob Balaram, however, stated that it was not primarily designed for a" long mission", noting, in particular, the detrimental effect of repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
It is also hoped that ingenuity will not crash as its sorties become more dangerous.
The helicopter has so far succeeded in all its sorties, including Friday's fourth, the longest, reaching a total of 266 meters in 117 seconds.
The most important objective of this flight was to locate a new location where it could land safely very soon.
So far, it has always been back on its main runway, but that will not be the case for the fifth round, which is expected to take place in about a week. NASA plans to carry out two more helicopter sorties over 30 days.
The helicopter mission was originally scheduled to end a month after its start, with NASA observing that the rover would then travel quickly and far to an interesting area where rock samples would be taken.
Therefore, the helicopter cannot keep up with the pace of the mobile robot as it has to recharge itself with solar panels every sortie.
