NASA is planning to fly a small helicopter on Mars. This comes after more than a century after the first powered flight on Earth. NASA now plans to prove it’s possible for Mars.
Key Points
- The small Ingenuity helicopter has been transported aboard the Mars 2020 spacecraft and will reach the Red Planet on February 18.
- The small helicopter will have several challenges and the biggest of them is the rarefied Martian atmosphere, which is just one percent the density of Earth’s.
- It is called a helicopter but appears similar to mini-drones.
- The four feet helicopter weighs just 1.8 kilograms (four pounds), its blades are much larger and spin about 5 times faster — 2,400 revolutions per minute –than would be required to generate the same amount of lift back on Earth.
- It has a box-like body, and four carbon-fiber blades arranged in two rotors spinning in opposite directions. It has two cameras, navigation sensors, and computers.
- Ingenuity is also equipped with solar cells to recharge its batteries, much of the energy being used for staying warm on cold Martian nights, where temperatures fall to minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius).
- The helicopter is hitching a ride on the belly of the Perseverance rover, which will drop it to the ground once it has landed then drive away.
- Within the first few months of the mission, up to 5 flights of gradual difficulty are planned, over a period of 1 month.
- Ingenuity will travel as far as 50 meters from its starting area and back and will fly at a height of 3-5 meters (10-15 feet).
- Each of the planned flights will last up to a minute and a half.
- Ingenuity has been designed to fly autonomously as it is too far away from Earth to be operated using a joystick.
If this mission is successful, it will open up a whole new dimension of exploring Mars.
