The Man Behind NASAâs Wright Brothers Moment On Mars Is IIT-Madras Alumnus Bob Balaram
by Bhaswati Guha Majumder - Apr 21, 2021 06:28 AM
J. Bob Balaram
Snapshot
Since his childhood, he was fascinated by rockets and the interest in space grew more than ever when he heard about the Apollo Moon mission on the radio.
History was created on 19 April when NASAâs âIngenuityâ helicopter took a flight above the dust surface on Mars, making it the first powered flight on another planet.
While the flight success on Mars â NASA s Wright Brothers Moment âturned into one of the most popular topics on social media platforms, an Indian-origin engineerâs name also came under the spotlight who had this idea of flying on the Red Planet for years.
By Pilar Wolfsteller2021-04-19T20:34:00+01:00
NASA has flown a small rotorcraft on Mars, marking the first powered controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.
The US space agency says on 19 April that helicopter “Ingenuity” ascended to 10ft above the surface during a 39sec flight. The aircraft hovered, turned 96° and hovered again before landing.
The Ingenuity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 06:46 Eastern Daylight Time.
Source: NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter photographs a shadow of itself during its first flight on Mars on 19 April 2021
NASA s Mars helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its historic first flight
NASA s Ingenuity helicopter has made history with the first-ever powered flight on Mars.
Posted: Apr 19, 2021 5:33 PM
Posted By: CNN
The Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its historic flight on Mars and safely landed back on the surface, according to NASA.
The first powered, controlled flight on another planet took place at
3:34 a.m. ET.
Unlike when the helicopter s fellow traveler, the Perseverance rover, landed on Mars on February 18, there was a bit of wait to know how the helicopter fared in its attempt.
The helicopter team was in mission control at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, early Monday morning to receive and analyze the first data from Ingenuity s flight attempt.
20 April 2021 /
Ingenuity rules (and flies)
Brief hover demonstrates that controlled flight is possible in thin Martian gravity, only about a third of Earth’s.
The first flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was captured in this image from Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars. The milestone marked the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
After an eight-day delay due to a software glitch, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has had its Wright Brothers moment.
At about noon Mars time, yesterday, it lifted off the Martian surface, hovered about 3 metres above the ground, rotated 90 degrees and set back down. In the process, it even managed to take selfies of its shadow on the ground below it.
Helicopter succeeds in first flight on Red Planet
AFP, WASHINGTON
NASA on Monday successfully flew its mini helicopter Ingenuity on Mars, the first powered flight on another planet and a feat the agency said was “our Wright brothers moment.”
The 1.8kg rotorcraft lifted off at 7:34am GMT, rose to 3m, swiveled its tissue-box-sized body, swayed in a gentle Martian breeze and then touched down after 39.1 seconds.
Data and images from the flight were transmitted 278 million kilometers to Earth, where they were received by NASA’s array of ground antennas and processed almost three-and-a-half hours later.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is pictured on Mars on Monday.