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If you're curious, a press release from yesterday had more details:

"This time around, we plan to trying climbing to 16 feet (5 meters) in this flight test. Then, after the helicopter hovers briefly, it will go into a slight tilt and move sideways for 7 feet (2 meters). Then Ingenuity will come to a stop, hover in place, and make turns to point its color camera in different directions before heading back to the center of the airfield to land."

via https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/294/were-...



Kind of funny that a particular patch of the martian expanse has now been dedicated as an 'airfield'.


It even has an ICAO airport code, JZRO.


"The letters I and X are not currently used as the first letter of any ICAO identifier, and the letter J is only used in a ceremonial ICAO identifier granted to Jezero Crater on the planet Mars, JZRO."

Did they just set a precedent for J as the Mars prefix?


Yep. Nothing more permanent then temporary and all that - when Mars needs another airfield area, someone's going to Google for guidance, see that J and go "well, let's be consistent..."


Hope they add it to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020


we now have airfields on different planets!




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