An artist’s concept of Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flying through the Red Planet’s skies. Nasa/JPL-Caltech
Nasa conducted its first flight on another planet on Monday. It was a short hop for a small chopper named Ingenuity but it demonstrated technology that could prove critical to the future of space exploration.
The 1.8kg vehicle ascended to about 3m above the surface of the red planet for about 40 seconds, before descending back to the ground.
The helicopter arrived on Mars along with the Perseverance rover on 18 February in a dramatic, high-definition landing. As the US and other nations prepare to return humans to the moon, and eventually land on Mars, using drones to closely assess the surrounding landscape will become ever-more important.
NASA s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight
News provided by
Share this article
Share this article
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Monday, NASA s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured this shot as it hovered over the Martian surface on April 19, 2021, during the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet. It used its navigation camera, which autonomously tracks the ground during flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
WATCH: NASA shares images of first successful helicopter flight on Mars
Ground controllers had to wait more than three excruciating hours before learning whether the pre-programmed flight was a success. Author: MARCIA DUNN (AP Aerospace Writer) Published: 5:32 AM EDT April 19, 2021 Updated: 8:57 AM EDT April 19, 2021
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA’s experimental helicopter Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.
The triumph was hailed as a Wright Brothers moment. The mini 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) copter even carried a bit of wing fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, which made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Watch: NASA launches mini helicopter on Mars in historic feat
The mini helicopter began its flight approximately at 3:45 p.m. (India time) and the data was received at NASA headquarters around 4.25 p.m.
Monday April 19, 2021 5:17 PM, IANS
[Image tweeted by NASA (@Nasa)]
Washington: In a historic feat for humankind, NASA on Monday successfully launched the first powered, controlled flight of its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on another planet.
The mini helicopter began its flight approximately at 3:45 p.m. (India time) and the data was received at NASA headquarters around 4.25 p.m. (India time). It took off a few feet from the ground, hovered in the air for about 20 to 30 seconds, and landed.
autoevolution 19 Apr 2021, 9:02 UTC ·
by 1 photo
The event was initially supposed to take place on the weekend of April 10 but failed to do so on account of a watchdog timer expiration, a software glitch that prevented the machine from going into flight mode.
It took NASA engineers more than a week to come up with a fix after pondering two approaches. The first consisted of
“adding a few commands to the flight sequence.” The commands were written relatively fast, but NASA had to put them to the test both on Earth and on Mars before deciding that’s the right recipe.