The U.S. space agency NASA is reporting new progress on Mars for its experimental helicopter and Perseverance explorer. The helicopter, called Ingenuity, completed its ninth flight on the Red Planet on July 5. NASA described the flight as the most successful so far. This is because Ingenuity broke several new records: for length of flight, speed and distance. The helicopter’s movements are controlled by a team operating from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. The team said in the ninth flight, Ingenuity traveled for the first time across what it described as “unfriendly terrain.” The previous flights involved shorter trips over mostly flat terrain. The helicopter is working together with NASA’s Perseverance explorer, or rover. Currently, both are in an area of Mars known as “Stah.” The area contains rocks, sandy hills and craters. This kind of terrain can present challenges for Ingenuity, raising the possibility the aircraft could crash during flight or upon landing. The team says one reason for this is that Ingenuity was built to guide itself with an algorithm designed to fly it across mainly flat ground. The main goal of the Ingenuity experiment was to demonstrate that a helicopter could successfully take off, fly and land on Mars. The aircraft was not built to perform detailed searches and other complex operations. But since Ingenuity has progressed so well in previous tests, NASA controllers decided to push its limits even further. The team described the latest flight as a “nail-biter.” But in the end, it reported Ingenuity was “alive and well” after completing a trip of 625 meters through “challenging terrain.” The flight lasted 2 minutes and 46 seconds. The aircraft reached a speed of 5 meters per second. As it flies, Ingenuity captures detailed images of the surface of Mars. NASA says the helicopter’s ninth flight was designed to provide “the first close view of major science targets that (Perseverance) will not reach for quite some time.” The latest images will be studied by the Perseverance team, which will then decide which areas may be most valuable for the rover to visit. Ingenuity is supporting Perseverance’s goal to collect Martian soil and rocks to help scientists search for signs of ancient life on the planet.