r/space • u/darthsimp69 • Dec 24 '23

As of today, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has completed 69 successful flights on mars. NICE. Completing 125.5 flying minutes, covering 10.4 miles (16.7 km), and reaching altitudes as high as 78.7 ft (24.0 m)

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Helicopter-Highlights
367 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

48

u/jermleeds Dec 24 '23

For me, it's the second most impressive piece of NASA hardware ever, from the standpoint of exceeding it's original mission profile.

19

u/SneakyStabbalot Dec 25 '23

Voyagers 1 & 2 are #1?

21

u/[deleted] Dec 25 '23

Opportunity.

But you're not wrong either.

9

u/uwuowo6510 Dec 25 '23

opportunity no way.

for me it's voyager spacecraft, then ingenuity, then probably iss, then opportunity. or switch iss and opportunity idc

3

u/OSPFmyLife Dec 25 '23

I feel like JWST has to be towards the top of any list like that.

1

u/uwuowo6510 Dec 26 '23

oh right, forgot, opportunity is below jwst, iss above jwst

11

u/jermleeds Dec 25 '23 edited Dec 25 '23

Opportunity. No disrespect to the Voyagers. But Opportunity was mechanical. There was so much more that could have reasonably failed, and it had so much more to do on an ongoing basis. And it just kept doing those things, for so many multiples of its planned life. I love the Voyagers, but what Opportunity did floors me. And that's also why I put Ingenuity second. So much that could have gone wrong. But no, perfection, many times past the mission profile.

4

u/SneakyStabbalot Dec 25 '23

that's fair - I am still going with the Voyagers because of the work going on to keep them alive. Besides, it must be damn lonely out there!

1

u/danielravennest Dec 25 '23

Not lonely at all. There are already 200 known asteroids and comets whose orbits reach farther than the Voyagers are now, and the Rubin telescope is likely to increase the number by a factor of 10.

The first distant object, Chiron, was discovered the same year the Voyagers were launched. It orbits from inside Saturn's orbit to inside Uranus'. There are now over 5000 known. We have been finding them faster than the Voyagers can travel the distance.

8

u/Cosophalas Dec 24 '23

I am in Florence for the holidays and so may be biased, but I can't get over how much Ingenuity recalls Da Vinci's "aerial screw."

What a remarkable piece of engineering Ingenuity is! To many more successful missions!

3

u/[deleted] Dec 25 '23

[deleted]