NASA’s Mars Helicopter

NASA’s experimental helicopter Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday (April 19, 2021), achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet. It was a brief hop – just 39 seconds and 10 feet – but accomplished all major milestones. Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California declared success after receiving the data and images via the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity hitched a ride to Mars on Perseverance, clinging to the rover’s belly when it touched down in an ancient river delta in February. The $85 million helicopter demo was considered high risk, yet high reward. A whole new way to explore the alien terrain in our solar system is now at our disposal. Ground controllers had to wait more than three hours before learning whether the preprogrammed flight had succeeded 178 million miles away. To accomplish all this, the helicopter’s twin, counter-rotating rotor blades needed to spin 2,500 revolutions per minute – five times faster than on Earth. With atmosphere just 1% the thickness of Earth’s, engineers had to build a helicopter light enough – with blades spinning fast enough – to generate this otherworldly lift. Ingenuity is just 19 inches tall, a spindly four-legged chopper. Its fuselage, containing all the batteries, heaters and sensor, is the size of a tissue box. The carbon-fiber, foam-filled rotors are the biggest pieces: Each pair stretches 4 feet tip to tip. Ingenuity also had to be sturdy enough to withstand Martian wind, and is topped with a solar panel for recharging the batteries, crucial for surviving minus 130 degree Fahrenheit Martian nights. The team plans to test the helicopter’s limits, possibly even wrecking the craft, leaving it to rest in place forever, having sent its data back home.