Look: Mars helicopter 10th flight sets a new "aerial record"

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter started to zip around Mars in early April 2021.

It was originally only expected to spend about a month conducting a series of test flights.

Nearly four months later, the tiny robot is still regularly taking to the Martian skies — with increasingly impressive results.

Ingenuity’s flight path centered on Raised Ridges — an area of Mars where NASA scientists think water may have once flowed.

Ingenuity is in a sense repeating a trick from its ninth flight on July 5, when it captured this image.

For flight nine, Ingenuity soared over the sandy dunes of the Séítah region, which Perseverance can’t currently navigate.

If there was ever any doubt, the last two flights prove the value of Perseverance’s eye in the sky.

Still, flight 10 was anything but a repeat.

It marked the highest Ingenuity has ever flown, along its most complex flight path to date.

With its latest flight, Ingenuity has flown more than a mile in total on Mars.

Not too shabby, considering we were cheering a 13-foot flight just three months ago.

They’re hoping to create stereo images of Raised Ridges, which could help chart a course for Perseverance through the treacherous terrain.

As for Ingenuity itself, NASA hasn’t released details on the helicopter’s next flight, but it’s expected to continue its scouting mission for the foreseeable future — and likely break a few more records along the way.