Ingenuity helicopter soars past 100 minutes of Mars flight time

a black-and-white image showing a small helicopter's shadow on sandy, boulder-studded ground. — NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity captured this image of its shadow during its 57th Red Planet flight, on Sept. 3, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter now has more than 100 minutes of Mars flight time under its belt.

The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity flew for the 57th time on Sunday (Sept. 3), covering 713 feet (217 meters) of ground on a sortie that lasted 129 seconds.

That latter figure pushed Ingenuity's cumulative Mars air time over the century mark, to 102.4 minutes, according to the mission's flight log.

Ingenuity landed with NASA's Perseverance rover inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021. Perseverance is hunting for signs of ancient Mars life on the floor of Jezero, which harbored a big lake and a river delta billions of years ago, and collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth.

Ingenuity was originally tasked with showing that aerial exploration is possible on Mars, despite the planet's thin atmosphere. The little chopper aced this mission after a month-long, five-flight campaign. NASA then granted an extension, during which Ingenuity is serving as a scout for the Perseverance team.

— Perseverance Mars rover snaps amazing shot of dusty Ingenuity helicopter (photo)

— Mars helicopter Ingenuity snaps incredible aerial photo of Perseverance rover during 51st flight

Ingenuity's success will also pave the way for future Mars helicopters, if all goes according to plan.

For example, NASA plans to put two Ingenuity-like choppers on the lander mission that will retrieve Perseverance's collected samples. And the agency is working on larger, more capable helicopters that could do bona fide Mars exploration on their own, collecting data in hard-to-reach places and covering large swaths of Red Planet ground.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.