NASA's mini helicopter Ingenuity on Sunday successfully completed its third flight on Mars, moving farther and faster than ever before, with a peak speed of 6.6 feet per second.

This NASA photo shows the downward-looking navigation camera aboard the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its second experimental test flight on April 22, 2021
This NASA photo shows the downward-looking navigation camera aboard the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its second experimental test flight on April 22, 2021 NASA/JPL-CALTECH / Handout

After two initial flights during which the craft hovered above the Red Planet's surface, the helicopter on this third flight covered 64 feet (50 meters) of distance, reaching the speed of 6.6 feet per second (two meters per second), or four miles per hour in this latest flight.

This NASA photo obtained April 25, 2021 shows the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft
This NASA photo obtained April 25, 2021 shows the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft NASA/JPL-Caltech / Handout

"Today's flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing," said Dave Lavery, the Ingenuity project's program executive.

Graphic on the Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter
Graphic on the Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter AFP / Gal ROMA

The Perseverance rover, which carried the four-pound (1.8 kilograms) rotorcraft to Mars, filmed the 80-second third flight. NASA said Sunday that video clips would be sent to Earth in the coming days.

The lateral flight was a test for the helicopter's autonomous navigation system, which completes the route according to information received beforehand.

Video released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completing its third successful flight on the Red Planet.
Video released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completing its third successful flight on the Red Planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

"If Ingenuity flies too fast, the flight algorithm can't track surface features," NASA explained in a statement about the flight.

Ingenuity's flights are challenging because of conditions vastly different from Earth's -- foremost among them a rarefied atmosphere that has less than one percent the density of our own.

This means that Ingenuity's rotors, which span four feet, have to spin at 2,400 revolutions per minute to achieve lift -- about five times more than a helicopter on Earth.

The Ingenuity experiment will end in one month in order to let Perseverance return to its main task: searching for signs of past microbial life on Mars.