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Washington DC .: Vaneeza Rupani, a student at Albama High School, named the spacecraft that will attempt NASA’s first powered flight on another planet.
Destined to become the first aircraft to attempt a powered flight on another planet, NASA’s Mars Helicopter has officially received a new name: Wit.
Vaneeza Rupani, a third-year student at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, came up with the name and motivation behind it during the NASA “Name the Rover” essay contest.
“The ingenuity and brilliance of the people who work hard to overcome the challenges of interplanetary travel are what allow us all to experience the wonders of space exploration. “Ingenuity is what enables people to accomplish amazing things, and allows us to expand our horizons to the edges of the universe,” Rupani wrote in his contest presentation.
Rupani was one of 28,000 essays submitted to NASA by K-12 students from all US states and territories. USA That they recommended names for the next Mars rover.
In March, the agency announced that the seventh-grade Alexander Mather trial had earned him the honor of naming the Perseverance rover. But with so many good trials, it seemed appropriate to also choose a name for the helicopter that will accompany the rover to Mars. Then NASA officials returned to the submitted trials to choose a name for the helicopter.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the NASA Scientific Mission Directorate, chose the name of the rover, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine chose the name of the helicopter.
“Ingenuity sums up the values that our technical helicopter demonstration will show everyone when it takes off next year as the first plane on the surface of another planet. It took a lot of hard and ingenious work to prepare the helicopter and then put it on the rover, and it will take a lot more, “Bridenstine said.
“I was happy that we had another great name from the name contest finalists from which I was able to select something so representative of this exciting part of our next mission to Mars,” added Bridenstine.
“I am proud that NASA’s Mars Helicopter is named after Vaneeza Rupani of Northport, Alabama. This is a unique privilege. Rupani’s essay on why she chose the name ‘Wit’ highlights her creativity, originality and intelligence,” he said. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.
“His understanding of the importance of exploration is extraordinary, and I am sure he has a bright future ahead of him. Congratulations to Ms. Rupani for being selected for this prestigious honor, ”added Shelby.
As a technology demonstration, Ingenuity is a high-risk, high-reward experiment. The helicopter will travel to Mars connected to the belly of the Perseverance rover, which is preparing for launch in July or August.
For several months after the rover’s landing, Ingenuity will remain encapsulated in a protective cover to protect it from debris during entry, descent, and landing. When the timing of the rover’s mission is correct, Ingenuity will deploy to stand and operate alone on the surface of the Red Planet.
If the 4-pound (2-kilogram) spacecraft, powered by solar power, a combination of specially designed components and commercially available parts, survives the cold Martian nights during its pre-flight verification, the team will proceed with testing.
If successful during its 30 Martian (31 Earth days) experimental flight test window, the small spacecraft will demonstrate that powered flight on Mars can be achieved, allowing future Mars missions to better use second-generation helicopters to Add a dimension antenna to your scans.
The helicopter successfully completed its flight test program using the 25-foot space simulation camera at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The next flight attempt will be in the real environment of Mars.
And if Ingenuity encounters difficulties, engineers will apply the lessons learned to future technology demonstrations. The science collection portion of the Mars 2020 mission will not be affected.
“In the early days of this project, the feasibility of flying on Mars was questioned. But today we have a helicopter at the launch site, installed in the scout vehicle and waiting to board the rocket that will take us to the Red Planet, ”said MiMi Aung, project manager for Mars Helicopters at JPL.
“As Vaneeza said in her essay, ingenuity and hard work led us to see beyond what was logical to what was possible. Now the mill will have the opportunity to fly to Mars, “said Aung.
Along with researching hard-to-reach targets like cliffs, caves, and deep craters, future planes could carry small scientific instruments or act as explorers for human and robotic explorers on Mars or other celestial bodies.
NASA’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are currently undergoing final assembly and verification at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
They will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in July, and will land at Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021.
JPL is building and will manage Perseverance and Wit operations for the agency. The Kennedy-based NASA Launch Services Program is responsible for managing the launch. Lockheed Martin Space in Boulder, Colorado provided the Mars helicopter delivery system. Caltech in Pasadena, California, administers JPL for NASA.
The “Name the Rover” contest association was part of a Space Law Agreement in educational and public outreach efforts between NASA, Battelle of Columbus, Ohio, and Future Engineers of Burbank, California. Amazon Web Services is an additional prize provider for the contest.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
Through its Artemis program, NASA intends to land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024 and establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028, using it as a springboard to send astronauts to Mars.
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