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The work isn’t over for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter.
Engineers hope to fly the rotorcraft four more times in the next two weeks before calling it quits on the pioneering technology experiment, which accomplished the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet Monday.
As officials celebrated the helicopter’s historic flight, teams were already looking forward to a series of more daring hops to take Ingenuity higher and farther away from its makeshift “airfield” on the Red Planet.
NASA has first successful powered, controlled flight on Mars
Data from the first flight will return to Earth a few hours following the autonomous flight.
and last updated 2021-04-19 08:46:28-04
The Ingenuity helicopter had successfully completed its historic flight on Mars.
The first powered, controlled flight on another planet took place at 3:30 a.m.
Data from the first flight returned to Earth a few hours following the autonomous flight.
You can watch Mission Control receive the first images below.
A postflight briefing will be held at 2 p.m.
The participants are:
Michael Watkins, JPL director
Bob Balaram, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter chief engineer at JPL
Watch the first footage of a helicopter on Mars
A big flight for a tiny craft
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Image: NASA
There’s new video of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, captured by the Perseverance rover’s cameras and posted to Twitter by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The copter had its first flight earlier today, lifting 10 feet off the Martian surface for 39 seconds and marking the first flight of a powered craft on another planet. The video shows the tissue box-sized craft zipping up and hovering in place before gracefully landing back on the surface.
Witness the historic moment in full. The Mastcam-Z cameras on @NASAPersevere show us the takeoff, hovering and landing of the #MarsHelicopter. pic.twitter.com/ypdIWmC4D1 NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 19, 2021
NASA reschedules controlled flight of Ingenuity on Mars; attempt no sooner than Monday thehimalayantimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehimalayantimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
/PRNewswire/ NASA is targeting no earlier than Monday, April 19, for the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at approximately 3:30 a.m. EDT (12:30.