Exploring Mars: NASA Ingenuity helicopter flying over desert

In an attempt to find traces of life on other planets, NASA has been consistently flying the Ingenuity helicopter around Mars completing its 50th flight over the planet's desert. 

The small helicopter flew over 1,000 feet, reaching an altitude of around 60 feet. The unmanned helicopter exceeded the expectations of scientists by flying 50 times with more to follow.

Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division Lori Glaze, in a statement, said, "Just as the Wright brothers continued their experiments well after that momentous day at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Ingenuity team continues to pursue and learn from the flight operations of the first aircraft on another world."

While celebrating the remarkable achievement, Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory released footage of the Ingenuity helicopter.

NASA explained that the video shows dust initially kicked up by the helicopter's spinning rotors, as well as Ingenuity taking off, hovering, and beginning its 1,444-foot (440-meter) journey to the southwest. 

"The rotorcraft landed — off camera — at Airfield 'Iota.' Every time Ingenuity goes airborne, it covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve," NASA noted.

The robotic chopper is risking flying through Mars' Jezero Crater — once believed to have hosted a rich river delta. A rich river delta is an environment that could have hosted Martian life.

Due to irregular terrain, explained Josh Anderson, NASA's Ingenuity operations lead, engineers are guiding Ingenuity through an area with dunes, boulders, and rocks, and surrounded by hills.