helicopter Ingenuity managed to make the first controlled and powered flight from Mars, in a test that would pave the way for future explorations on the red planet, NASA space agency reported.
The helicopter traveled to Mars attached to the bottom of the Perseverance rover, which landed on the planet on February 18 with the mission to look for signs of extraterrestrial life.
“Altimetric data confirm that ingenuity made the first flight of a propulsion aircraft to another planet,” said an engineer from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the control room applauded and celebrated the historic phase.
The space agency had originally planned the flight for April 11, but delayed it due to a software problem that was identified during a planned high-speed test of the aircraft’s rotors.
Since then, the problem has been solved. The 3.97-pound (1.8-kilogram) soccer-sized drone flew around 3:30 AM EDT.
However, due to the distance between the two planets (140,000,000 miles or 225,000,000 kilometers), the data did not arrive until a few hours later. NASA began a transmission at 6:15 AM ET.
Mimi Aung, project manager for Ingeniousness at JPL, said: “Now we can say that the human being flew to another planet” and, overwhelmed with emotion, recalled the six years of work, while assuring that “if not would have been covid-19 would hug “all his colleagues present in the room.
A challenge in an unknown atmosphere
This is difficult because the air on Mars is very thin – less than 1% of the pressure in the Earth’s atmosphere.
This makes the height much more difficult to achieve, even if it will be partially helped by a gravitational attraction that is one third of that of the Earth.
NASA engineers have confirmed that it has managed to take off, glide, return and land in the Jezero crater on Mars.
In addition to the data, the agency received a black and white image made by the helicopter with its own shadow in the air and a small video recorded by the Perseverance rover, a few meters away, of the flight.
Currently, NASA has not detailed the exact hours and duration of this first test flight of ingenuity, although it was planned to be 30-40 seconds and about 3 meters from the Martian surface.
The first motor flight from Earth was made by the Wright brothers in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. A piece of cloth from that plane was introduced into the Ingeniousness in homage to that deed.
Perseverance will make the record
After the flight, the ingenuity will send Perseverance technical data about what he did, and this information will be transmitted to Earth.
This included a black-and-white photograph of the Martian surface that ingenuity is programmed to take during the flight.
Later, once its batteries are recharged, Ingenuity will send another color photo of the Martian horizon, taken with another camera.
But the most spectacular images should come from the rover, which would record a few meters away.
Shortly after this filming, six 2.5-second videos will be sent to Earth. NASA hopes that at least one of them will show the helicopter in flight.
The full video will be sent in the next few days.
“There will be surprises,” said Elsa Jensen, who monitors the vehicle’s cameras.
The mission is controlled from California
The mission of this helicopter is commanded from the JPL-NASA headquarters in Pasadena, California.
“We are optimistic that the helicopter will be able to take off from the Martian surface at this time; however, this is a test and we are prepared for it not to happen,” the MHS official said.
“When we reach 10 meters (3 meters), ingenuity will enter into a plan that should last, if all goes well, about 30 seconds,” explained in a previous statement the specialist Håvard Grip, responsible for the control of flight of ingenuity in the laboratory.
Ingenuity is expected to pave the way for future flights that will revolutionize the exploration of celestial bodies, as they can reach areas that rovers cannot walk and travel much faster.
