HOUSTON, Texas: NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, weighing 4-pounds, landed in Mars’ Jezero Crater along with NASA’s life-hunting, sample-caching Perseverance rover on 18th February 2021.

Ingenuity easily completed its initial mission and was granted an extension, during which it has been serving as a scout for Perseverance.

On 25th February, Ingenuity completed another milestone, its 20th Martian flight.

On Twitter, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the missions of both Ingenuity and Perseverance, said, “Flight 20 was a success! In its 130.3 seconds of flight, the #MarsHelicopter covered 391 meters [1,283 feet] at a speed of 4.4 meters per second [9.8 mph], bringing it closer to @NASAPersevere’s landing location.”

Both Ingenuity and Perseverance spent their first Earth year on Mars exploring locales to the south and west of their touchdown zone, which were named after famed sci-fi author Octavia E. Butler by mission team members.

The 28-mile-wide (Jezero once contained a lake and a river delta billions of years ago, which are known for preserving carbon-containing organic chemicals and signs of life on Earth.

In a video released earlier this month, Perseverance science team member Briony Horgan, an associate professor of planetary science at Purdue University, said, “The delta in Jezero Crater is the reason we chose the landing site, and we hope to get to it later this spring.”

“Once we are there, we will be able to look at the bottom of the ancient lake that once filled Jezero to search for signs of ancient microbial life, and we plan to spend the whole next year traveling through the ancient lake deposits and ancient river deposits that are within the delta,” she added.

Mission team members have said Ingenuity is helping Perseverance to reach the delta by taking airborne imagery that allows the rover’s handlers to choose the safest and most efficient route.