The Ingenuity helicopter will be carrying out its 15th flight journey back to the Wright Brothers Field on November 6. From its first flight on April 19, making history of being the first controlled flight on another planet, it has pioneered various ventures, accompanying its big brother, the Perseverance rover.

However, this piece of cutting-edge technology is only designed to fly up to 90 seconds. This is because the main purpose of sending this helicopter is to achieve the milestone of being able to fly on the Martian planet, where the atmosphere is quite thin: less than 1% of the earth’s atmospheric density. 

The four-pound robot, built with light materials like the fully carbon-fiber propellers, uses solar power to gain enough energy to make daring flights on Mars. Despite the weight, it’s built to last, under the harsh weather conditions of the Martian planet. Another perk of this robot is that it flies on its own without human control. Of course, sending information to millions of miles away to fly a UAV manually wouldn’t be logical.

The helicopter has traveled its longest flight for 625 meters and a whopping flight time overpassing its initial build of 90 seconds by about 80 seconds. This gray little bird has revolutionized flying on mars and had made a huge step, or more relevantly, a huge flap for the advancement of technology and of mankind.