NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has successfully completed 27 flights.

The space machine, which first took to the Martian skies in April last year, was originally only meant to fly five times.

NASA designed Ingenuity to show that controlled flight was possible on the red planet and that future missions could use drone-like aircraft to explore the cosmos.

The machine has now far exceeded those parameters, and it is now effectively working as an aerial scout, helping the Perseverance team on Earth to decide on the optimal route for their Mars rover.

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