The ingenuity helicopter is sitting open under the belly of the Perseverance Rover on Mars.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA has discovered the origin of its innovation Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Orville and Wilbur Wright returned to their first flight to Kitty Hawk in 1903. A small piece of fabric from the famous Wright aircraft is now on the abode on the Red Planet, stretched under the solar panel of ingenuity.
At a NASA briefing on Tuesday, Bob Balaram, chief engineer of ingenuity, announced the surprise package, which he said was the size of a postage stamp. The unleashed muslin material, which comes from the wing cover, forms the connection between the first operated, controlled flight on Earth and NASA hopes it will form the connection between the first operated, controlled flight on another planet.
The ingenuity will take off on April 8, but will first have to be delivered to its Martian airfield location by Perseverance Rover. It will go through a wide range of probes before it attempts to land at an altitude of about 10 feet (3 m) above the Earth’s surface.
The Perseverance Rover helicopter is a few days away from the drop-spot, a relatively flat and clear area in the Jezero Crater. Once Ingenuity is revealed And sitting on the ground, the rover will move away carefully to make sure the rotorcraft’s solar panel can work to power its battery and keep it warm during cold nights.
Rotorcraft’s mission is to run for 31 Earth days, but the first night can be the most crucial. “While deployed to the surface will be a big challenge, but rescuing the first night on Mars alone, without protecting the rover and keeping it operating, will be even bigger,” Balaram said.
This otnoted image of Mars shows the ingenious airfield and flight zone in the Jejero pit.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Ari Rizona
The rover will set up shop on a sight site to try to get images and video of the short first flight of ingenuity.
If the initial hovering exercise goes well, NASA will try longer and higher flights. The entire flight zone covers a space of about 300 feet (90 m), giving plenty of space to pull its blades if ingenuity is required.
The 4-pound (1.8 kg) helicopter is a technical demonstration, an experiment that could show whether such a flight is even possible in difficult conditions on Mars. The planet’s thin atmosphere and blasting winds make it a place of ingenuity to operate. If it works, it could open the door to new forms of research on other worlds.
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