CAPE CAÑAVERAL, Florida (AP) – NASA’s experimental helicopter from Mars rose Monday from the dusty red surface of Mars to complete its first motorized and controlled flight over another planet.
The triumph was compared to the feat of the Wright brothers. In fact, the small 1.8-kilogram (£ 4) device, called the Ingenious, was carrying a piece of wing cloth from the Wright plane that made history in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
“Altimeter data confirms that Ingenuity made its first flight, the first flight of a motor aircraft on another planet,” said the helicopter’s chief pilot, Havard, Greap, whose voice cracked as his colleagues exploded. in the cheers.
California flight controllers confirmed the short flight of ingenuity after receiving data from the Perseverance vehicle, which was guarding more than 65 meters (200 feet) away. Ingenuity traveled to Mars with Perseverance, attached to the bottom of the vehicle on arrival in the ancient delta of the river last February.
The $ 85 million prototype was seen as a high-risk project with potential for big rewards.
“Every world has one flight,” Aung said this month. Speaking early Monday on the NASA show, he described it as the “ultimate dream.”
Aung and his team had to wait more than three hard hours before finding out if the scheduled flight was successful 287 million kilometers away. In addition to his anxiety, a software error prevented the helicopter from taking off a week before, forcing the engineers to find a solution.
The operations center erupted in applause, cheers and laughter as the success was finally announced. There were several when the first black-and-white image of Ingeniousness appeared on their screens, showing its shadow as it floated above the surface of Mars. Then came the stunning color images of the helicopter descending back to the surface, made by Perseverance, “the best host who could ever dream of ingenuity,” Aung said, thanking everyone.
NASA had planned a 40-second flight, and although initially there were few details, the aircraft met all its objectives: take-off, take-off, flight, take-off and landing.