NASA's Ingenuity 'Marscopter' to make its first flight on April 11, all you need to know

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is just two days away from making humankind’s first controlled flight on another planet. The nearly 1.8 kg robotic helicopter arrived on Mars tucked in the belly of  Perseverance Mars rover on February 18. As defined by NASA itself, the ‘Marscopter’ is different from the helicopters on earth and is just a “technological demonstration” to see it could fly on Mars.

As per the details provided by the space agency, Ingenuity would take off from Jezero Crater on Sunday, April 12 at 12pm local Mars Solar Time. The 'Marscopter' would rise to a height of 10 feet above the surface, hover there for about 30 seconds before coming down. Mission Control specialists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are expecting to receive the first data at around 4:15 am EDT. The whole episode of receiving data from the Red planet would be broadcasted LIVE on NASA TV. 

“While Ingenuity carries no science instruments, the little helicopter is already making its presence felt across the world, as future leaders follow its progress toward an unprecedented first flight,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. “We do tech demos like this to push the envelope of our experience and provide something on which the next missions and the next generation can build. Just as Ingenuity was inspired by the Wright brothers, future explorers will take off using both the data and inspiration from this mission.”

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All about NASA’s Ingenuity

Even though it can be called a ‘helicopter’, the appearance is closer to that of mini-drones. The “small but mighty passenger” aboard Perseverance is named, “Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter” which weighs about 1.8 kilograms on Earth and has a fuselage about the size of a tissue box. The United States space agency also elaborated that it started out six years ago as an “ implausible prospect”.

Ingenuity is an ‘experimental flight test: NASA has stressed that the ‘Mars Helicopter’ or what known as a technology demonstration is also “a narrowly focused project that seeks to test a new capability for the first time”. It also informed that the helicopter is currently not carrying any science instruments and is not a part of Perseverance’s ‘science mission’.

Image Credits: @NASA