CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) – NASA’s experimental helicopter The spacecraft landed on the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday, achieving its first airplane-driven flight to another planet.
The triumph was hailed as a moment by the Wright brothers. The 1.8-kilogram (4-pound) mini helicopter even carried some Wright Flyer wing fabric that made history similar to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.
It was a short jump (only 39 seconds and 10 feet (3 meters)), but it reached all the major milestones.
“We’ve been talking for a long time about our Wright brothers’ timing, and here it is, ”said project director MiMi Aung, offering a virtual hug to his socially distanced colleagues in the control room and at home. due to the coronavirus pandemic. .
Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California declared success after receiving the data and images via the Perseverance rover. The wit was launched to Mars by Perseverance, clinging to the rover’s belly when it fell into an ancient river delta in February.
The $ 85 million helicopter demonstration was considered high risk, but with a high reward.
Scientists encouraged news from around the world and even from space.
“We now have at our disposal a new way of exploring alien terrain,” said Nottingham Trent University astronomer Daniel Brown from England.
This first test flight, with more to come to naivety, is a great promise, Brown noted. Future helicopters could serve as alien explorers for rovers and eventually astronauts, in difficult and dangerous places.
Ground controllers had to wait more than three wacky hours before knowing if the pre-scheduled flight had been successful more than 287 million miles away. The first attempt had been delayed a week due to a software error.
When the news finally arrived, the operations center was filled with applause, applause and laughter. It followed further when the first black-and-white photo of Ingenuity appeared, showing the shadow of the helicopter as it hovered above the surface of Mars.
“The shadow of greatness, the first #MarsHelicopter flight into another complete world!” NASA astronaut Victor Glover tweeted from the International Space Station.
Then came an impressive color video of the helicopter’s clean landing, taken by Perseverance, “the best host that little naivete could ever expect,” Aung said thanking everyone.
The helicopter flew for 30 seconds at the planned altitude of 3 meters and spent 39 seconds in the air, more than three times longer than the first flight of the Wright Flyer, which lasted only 12 seconds on December 17. . 1903.
To achieve all this, the twin and counter-rotating rotor blades of the helicopter needed to rotate at 2,500 revolutions per minute, five times faster than on Earth. With an atmosphere only 1% the thickness of the Earth, engineers had to build a helicopter light enough (with the blades rotating fast enough) to generate this extraterrestrial lift.
With more than six years of manufacturing, the craft is only 49 inches tall, a four-legged helicopter. Its fuselage, which contains all the batteries, heaters and sensors, is the size of a handkerchief box. Carbon fiber rotors, filled with foam, are the largest pieces: each pair extends 1.2 meters to one end.
The device also had to be strong enough to withstand the Martian wind and topped with a solar panel to recharge the batteries, essential for surviving Martian nights at minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius).
NASA chose a flat, relatively rock-free patch for the Ingenuity airfield. After Monday’s success, NASA named the Wright brothers’ Martian airfield.
“While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and 173 million kilometers of space, they will now be united forever,” announced the head of NASA’s scientific missions, Thomas Zurbuchen .
The small helicopter with a giant job caught the eye from the moment it was launched with Perseverance last July. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger joined in the fun, rooting in his ingenuity over the weekend. “Get to the chopper!” he shouted in a tweeted video, a line from his 1987 science fiction film “Predator.”
Up to five increasingly ambitious flights are planned, which could target a fleet of Martian drones in the coming decades, providing aerial views, transporting packages and serving as a lookout point for human crews. On Earth, technology could allow helicopters to reach new heights, making things like navigating the Himalayas easier.
The Ingenuity team has until early May to complete the test flights so the rover can continue its main mission: to collect rock samples that may contain evidence from past Martian life, to return to Earth. here a decade.
The team plans to test the limits of the helicopter, possibly even destroying the boat, leaving it at rest forever, after having sent its data home.
Until then, perseverance will watch over ingenuity. Flight engineers affectionately call them Percy and Ginny.
“Big sister’s surveillance,” said Elsa Jensen of Malin Space Science Systems, the rover’s main camera operator.
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