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Ingenuity is the name you have received the NASA helicopter that is being presented to accompany the Perseverance rover, the space vehicle that will depart in the coming weeks to Mars for a space mission.
Vaneeza Rupani, a freshman from the Tuscaloosa County Institute in Alabama, was the one who gave the name to this aircraft after NASA approved its test among the others in the contest. This is how this drone will work to fly over the earth.
Characteristics and operation of Ingenuity, the NASA helicopter that will be taken to Mars
As explained by the same space agency, this experiment has been developed to go to Mars with the Perseverance rover in July or August this year. Its diet will be in charge of solar energy and its weight is only 2 kilograms.
The helicopter will be fully protected within a capsule in the robot so that it does not suffer damage from space debris during its entry, descent and landing on Mars. His design it has accessories created to measure and also with pieces that can be found in the market.
In its lower part there is a high resolution camera to take pictures with a height between 3 and 10 meters. To do this, the device has already passed tests at 7 meters at the base in southern California, but the next challenge is to demonstrate that it can capture images on about 5 flights during 30 Martian days (31 Earth days).
As disclosed on the same NASA page, Ingenuity’s goal is to demonstrate the first powered flight in another world. If this ends with positive results, NASA will be able to send more second-generation helicopters on future missions. Now if the team struggles, the engineers will upgrade the drone for future demos.
MiMi Aung, project manager for Mars Helicopters at JPL, highlighted the following: “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 ».
This project is part of the Mars 2020 program, a plan that has different missions, such as sending the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface in 2024 and establishing a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028. We’ll see how this space drone fares.
