Ingenuity helicopter makes its first flight on Mars

[zakiyatasnim]

The Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its first flight on Mars. The historic event took place on the morning of April 19, but we learned about it a little later, because information from a distant planet is transmitted with a long delay. Proof of the successful flight was received during a live broadcast by NASA, and then the first videos appeared with the device flying over the surface of the planet. The videos were shot by both the Ingenuity helicopter itself and the Perseverance rover, which are located not far from it. From now on, scientists know for sure that aircraft can be used on Mars, so in the future there may be even more such helicopters. They will be used to explore areas that Mars rovers cannot reach. Let's look at all the photos and videos available at the moment and find out what the Ingenuity helicopter will do next?




The Ingenuity aircraft was delivered to Mars in the lower part of the Perseverance rover. To extract the helicopter, the rover first had to drive to a 10-meter-long landing pad. After that, the aircraft was carefully dropped kenya number data onto the surface in such a way that it stood on all 4 legs. It was recharged by the rover and began to prepare to operate on the energy produced by the solar panels. Initially, the first flight was scheduled for April 11, but during the preparation the aircraft failed a test for strong propeller spin. The problem was solved by changing the helicopter's software.


Ingenuity takeoff point

First flight of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter
The flight was cleared when the craft was able to spin its propellers up to 2,400 revolutions per minute. Due to the fact that information from Mars reaches Earth with a delay, we were unable to watch the flight in real time. Instead, NASA conducted a live broadcast in which it promptly reported on the flight results and shared the first photos and videos. Everything went just fine — the Ingenuity helicopter rose to a height of 3 meters, stayed in the air for several dozen seconds and carefully descended to the surface of Mars.


The shadow of the Ingenuity helicopter taking off, photographed by the device's built-in camera

There is no doubt that the historic event was a success. First, NASA employees received telemetry data about the helicopter's location. And then a photograph appeared, taken by a camera built into the helicopter - it shows the shadow of the aircraft. At the moment, there is already a video on the Internet in which the aircraft takes off above the surface of the planet and makes a soft landing.