Tuesday 20 April 2021

Mars Helicopter Ingenuity's first Flight video (lift off and landing) - Science Loop


Science Loop on Youtube shows that Mars Ingenuity helicopter has made flight history!

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight

Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).

***Due to lack of time and information the quality and information of the video is not good enough.

There is also first image from Ingenuity's onboard camera during fly in Mars's atmosphere. NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took this shot while hovering over the Martian surface on April 19, 2021.

NASA is calling the flight a "Wright Brothers moment" on the Red Planet Mars!

Mars Ingenuity helicopter is also Autonomous. It takes some time to communicate from Earth to Mars. Because of this time delay, we can not use joystick. That is why scientists made it Autonomous. Cool! Isn't it?

NASA's experimental helicopter Ingenuity certainly rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars planet on Monday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.

The triumph was hailed as a "Wright brothers moment." The small mini 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) helicopter certainly succeeded.

The first flight was short (just 39 seconds) - but it accomplished a major milestone.

The $85 million USA helicopter demo was considered high risk yet high reward.

To accomplish the fascinating Mars flight, the helicopter's twin, counter-rotating rotor blades needed to spin at 2,500 revolutions per minute - 5 times faster than on Earth.

The helicopter has an excellent solar panel for recharging the batteries, crucial for its survival during the -90 C Martian nights.

2 comments:

  1. Yes! That's the Wright brothers moment on Mars.

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    1. Thanks for enjoying the Mars post. NASA indeed scored a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment on Monday as it sent its miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity flying above the surface of Mars for about 40 seconds. This certainly marked the first powered controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. The flight was called "flawless" by some experts.

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