NASA Lands Helicopter on Mars in Historic First Flight Our Bureau 426
Mars Helicopter s first flight
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet, today.
The solar-powered helicopter first became airborne at 3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT) – 12:33 Local Mean Solar Time (Mars time) – a time the Ingenuity team determined would have optimal energy and flight conditions. Altimeter data indicate Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds. It then descended, touching back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight. Additional details on the test are expected in upcoming downlinks, the space agency said in a release.
Chris Davies - Apr 19, 2021, 8:28am CDT
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter successfully took off from the surface of the red planet, hovered, and then landed safely again today, the first example of powered, controlled flight on another planet. The historic experiment is the culmination of a wild ride for Ingenuity, tucked against the belly of the Mars Perseverance rover until it was carefully lowered to the planet’s surface earlier this month.
While Perseverance is expected to spend the next few years exploring Jezero Crater where it landed, performing science experiments and collecting samples for future return to Earth, Ingenuity has a very different goal. It saw NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory attempt something never before tried, controlled flight on another planet in our Solar System.
1 minute read
Science Desk, Apr 19 (EFE).- NASA made history on Monday with the first controlled flight on Mars.
The Ingenuity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the small Mars helicopter had successfully taken off, hovered in the air and landed back down in the Jezero Crater via data sent back by the Perseverance rover.
The flight period was close to 40 seconds, during which time the craft reached a maximum altitude of three meters (10 feet) before coming down to land, NASA said.
“Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first flight on our planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world,” NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen said, adding that “this first of many airfields on other worlds” would be named the Wright Brothers Field in their honor.
EFEScience Desk
NASA s Mars helicopter in first controlled flight on another planet
A handout photo made available by NASA and taken from the agency s Perseverance rover on 16 April 2021 shows the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter right after it successfully completed a high-speed spin-up test (issued 19 April 2021). EFE/EPA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/HANDOUT
A handout image provided by NASA shows the shadow of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its first test flight on Mars, 19 April 2021. EFE/EPA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/HANDOUT
A handout video still taken from a livestream by NASA shows engineers celebrating after data downlinked from NASA s Ingenuity Helicopter suggested a successful first test flight on Mars, at the control room at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA, 19 April 2021. EFE/EPA/NASA HANDOUT HANDOUT
19 Apr 2021
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) documented the first successful flight of an aircraft over another planet as the Ingenuity helicopter flew 10 feet above the surface of Mars for 39 seconds on Monday.
“Ingenuity is the latest in a long and storied tradition of NASA projects achieving a space exploration goal once thought impossible,” acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said in the NASA report.
“The X-15 was a pathfinder for the space shuttle. Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner rover did the same for three generations of Mars rovers. We don’t know exactly where Ingenuity will lead us, but today’s results indicate the sky – at least on Mars – may not be the limit.”