Ingenuity helicopter manages to fly to Mars

NASA’s small Ingenuity helicopter has made history today by making the first controlled, motorized flight of an aircraft on another planet, Mars.

The JPL-NASA team, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in charge of monitoring the mission from California, has reported live the receipt of data that confirmed that it had taken off, floated and landed again in the Jezero crater of March.

In addition, a black and white image was taken by the helicopter of his shadow while in the air and a small video recorded by the rover Perseverance, which remains several meters and serves as a communication link.

Confirmation that the small aircraft (1.8 kilos in weight) passed with honors an incredibly complicated test took place at 10.46 GMT.

The solar-powered helicopter took off at 12.33pm local average solar time from Mars (07.34 GMT), ascended to its prescribed maximum altitude of 3 meters, remained in hover for 30 seconds to go down and touch again the surface. A total of 39.1 seconds of flight.

The 278 million kilometers between the two planets make it impossible to have live data – the delay is about 15 minutes – so Ingenuity received instructions yesterday, but today had to manage the flight itself.

After receiving the data, the JPL-NASA team erupted in screams of joy, applause and joy behind the masks.

Mimi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity at JPL, noted, “Now we can say that humans have managed to fly for the first time on another planet” and overwhelmed with emotion she recalled the six years of work, at the same time who assured that “if it were not for the covid-19 I would embrace” all his comrades.

Taking flight to Mars is no easy task. Although gravity is about a third of ours, the pressure of the atmosphere at the surface is only 1% of the Earth’s, so its blades had to rotate much faster, 2,537 revolutions per minute .

The whole process has been closely followed by the Perseverance rover, which took the helicopter to Mars in its “belly” and secures its communications. On his Twitter profile he wrote, “You can’t imagine what I just saw,” accompanied by a gif showing the flight, which he recorded in color.

The JPL stressed in a tweet that it is possible “motorized and controlled flight from the surface of another planet. It takes a little ingenuity, perseverance and spirit to make this opportunity a reality.”

It’s been the first, but not the last time I’ve tried it. Its mission will last 30 suns (Martian days), during which it could take off another five times and, as the Olympic motto says, it will be tried to be higher (up to five meters) and farther.

Ingenuity has an air of fragility, with 1.2 meters in wingspan, consists of a small cube-shaped body, which houses sensors, cameras and batteries; two pairs of carbon fiber blades, placed one on top of the other, on top of an antenna and a small solar panel, and four thin legs to stand on.

NASA broadcast live from the JLP room where the data was received. At 10.40 GMT the engineer in charge of the reception, identified as Michael, uttered a laconic and neutral “starting to see data”, and little by little: “they seem nominal”.

Here began a few minutes of tension as they went in and analyzed the receipt from Mars: telemetry, battery, camera report, the engineer kept saying in the same tone that did not let even an emotion shine.

NASA finally confirmed that “the data reveals that the helicopter has had a successful first flight.”

Ingenuity does not carry any scientific instrument, as it is a proof of concept, a technological demonstration that it is possible to fly on the red planet, which will allow you to acquire knowledge and experience for future missions that can have flying machines.

This company has been compared by NASA to the feat achieved in 1903 by the Wright brothers, who made the first motor flight. In fact, Ingenuity carries under its rotors a small piece of cloth from the wings of that plane, and Aung has also remembered them today.

NASA will offer a press conference throughout the day with more details about the helicopter flight, which has written a page in the history of space, as it was written on the wall of the JPL room, they have dared to do powerful things.