NASA is preparing the first helicopter flight Ingenuity Mars, currently attached Perseverance rover which is stationary on Mars. The first flight is scheduled for April 8, being the first attempt to fly a helicopter to another planet.
However, before the 4-kilogram rotor plane can make its first flight, both the mini-helicopter and the team must meet a number of milestones. "The first flight is special and is the most important flight we intend to make", said Havard Grip, chief pilot of Ingenuity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Once implemented, NASA will make the first flight of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter. It will have 30 Martian days or 31 Earth days to conduct the test flight. However, the flight will be conducted in a controlled manner. On Mars, flight will be much more difficult than in Earth's atmosphere.
On Mars, flight is much more difficult than in the Earth's atmosphere.
"Ingenuity Marsa is a technological demonstration that aims to be the first motorized device to fly to another planet and which, if successful, could expand the horizon and expand the scope of what is possible on Mars.", said Lori Glaze, Director of NASA's Division of Planetary Sciences.
The gravity of the planet Mars is about a third of that of Earth. The atmosphere is only 1% compared to the atmosphere at the Earth's surface, which makes the flight difficult. The surface of the red planet receives about half the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth during a Martian day. The temperature can drop to minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the night.
The Perseverance Rover landed on the Red Planet, in the Jezero Crater area, on February 18, 2021.. The main goal of the two-year mission is to look for evidence that microbial organisms may have existed on Mars about 3 billion years ago, when the planet was warmer, wetter, and probably more hospitable and conducive to life.