On a flat, arid surface of Mars real estate, a small helicopter is ready to make aviation history.
NASA’s experimental Mars helicopter, known as Ingenuity, will take its expected first test flight on the red planet on Sunday. If successful, the joyride will be the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
“The moment our team has been waiting for is almost here,” MiMi Aung, the Ingenuity helicopter project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a news conference on Friday. “We started with the fundamental question – the really serious question of whether it is really possible to fly a helicopter on Mars?”
The first helicopter ride showed comparisons with December 17, 1903, when Orville and Wilbur Wright completed the first powered and controlled flight on earth. Although the brothers took turns making several flights that day, Orville was at the helm when the milestone was set and he flew 120 feet in icy winds against Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, within 12 seconds.
Last month, NASA revealed that a piece of dust the size of the Wright brothers’ first aircraft, the 1903 Wright Flyer, was attached to a cable under the Ingenuity’s solar panel.
The small 4-pound helicopter flew with the Perseverance Rover to the red planet on February 18, which hit an area of Mars known as Jezero Crater on February 18. Weeks after landing, the Rover Ingenuity was transported to its “airport”. a flat 33-foot-33-foot piece of the Mars landscape.
On Sunday, the helicopter will attempt to fly into Mars’ thin atmosphere for the first time. During the test flight, which can take up to 30 seconds, the helicopter will climb up to 10 feet above the Martian surface and soar for up to 30 seconds before touching again, according to NASA.
Although the short trip seems simple, gravity on Mars is a third of the Earth’s, and the atmosphere of the red planet is only 1 percent as dense as Earth’s atmosphere, making the controlled flight collectively more challenging.
The Martian environment is also a harsh and unforgiving place.
“It’s very cold at night,” Aung said. “The vehicle that sent us there has to survive cold nights alone. It has to load itself, and the wind is new to us.”
Engineers and flight controllers will also have to deal with a delay in communication, which means that NASA will only know early Monday morning how the helicopter performed – or even if it survives.
If the first outing is considered a success, NASA could try extra experimental flights and take the helicopter to further distances and higher altitudes. According to the agency, Ingenuity is designed to work on Mars for about 31 days.
NASA said small helicopters could pioneer groundwork for future expeditions to Mars and for other planetary scientific missions.
Lori Glaze, director of the Division of Planetary Science at NASA headquarters, said in a statement that Ingenuity “could further expand our horizons and broaden the scope of what is possible with Mars exploration.”
And after nearly two months of checking its instruments and conducting tests, NASA is preparing to begin the Perseverance rover’s two-year mission to wander the surface of Mars, looking for signs of ancient microbial life. .
