Read more: India loses contact with lunar spacecraftįor instance, NASA had to make the helicopter as light as possible. A thin atmosphere can affect flight in a number of ways, especially during take-off and landing. If all goes well, this will be the first powered flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, where the atmospheric density is less than 1% of Earth's. The first test will involve the helicopter taking off a few meters from the ground, hovering in the air for about 20 to 30 seconds, and then landing.
Mars helicopter ingenuity series#
To that end, Ingenuity will perform a series of test flights during a "30-Martian-day experimental window" in the spring of 2021. And as far as human exploration is concerned, we want to send people to Mars and bring them back. Geologists want to return Martian rocks to Earth within the next 10 years. Ultimately, that is exactly what space engineers want to achieve. None have ever lifted off again, let alone returned to Earth. So far, missions to Mars have only ever landed on the planet. Which – if it succeeds – will be special. NASA describes Ingenuity as an attempt to demonstrate and test the first powered flight "on another world for the first time." The Mission: another small step towards a giant leap It should arrive by February 18, 2021 at the Jezero Crater on Mars. Leaving Earth in mid-2020 means the journey, or "trajectory," to Mars will take a mere seven months instead of the usual nine. It is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The Mars 2020 mission has a "launch window" from mid-July to mid-August 2020. However, NASA also wants to try out technology, such as the helicopter, in preparation for future human and robotic missions on Mars. The rover has four main scientific goals, such as determining whether life ever arose on Mars and characterizing the planet's climate and geology. Read more: Why NASA turned Apollo tough guy pilots to geologists The helicopter is a small autonomous aircraft that will ride to Mars strapped to the "belly" – as NASA puts it – of the rover. Engineers tested the Mars helicopter's functions inside an airlock at the Kennedy Space Center Image: NASA/Cory Huston Unlike the other instruments, though, Ingenuity's main objective is to separate itself from the rover and move about independently. Ingenuity is essentially one of eight instruments on the rover, Perseverance, which will carry out science and technology experiments on Mars beginning February 2021. The overall name for the mission is "Mars 2020." Rupani wrote in her essay, "Ingenuity is what allows people to accomplish amazing things, and it allows us to expand our horizons to the edges of the universe." That honor went to a high school student in Alabama, named Vaneeza Rupani. With so many entries, the American space agency decided to pick another winner, and name the helicopter as well. The winning entry was submitted by a 13-year-old boy named Alexander Mather, who came up with the name "Perseverance." An artist's impression of NASA's Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, on Mars, standing next to the new Mars rover, Perseverance Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Read more: What's the science on the Emirates Mars Mission? When NASA launched a "Name the Rover" essay contest in 2019, they received 28,000 submissions from school children across the United States. It's heading for the Red Planet with that new American rover.
How could we overlook a helicopter on Mars? With three Mars missions: NASA's new rover Perseverance, the UAE's Emirates Mars Mission, and China's Tianwen-1 all vying for 2020 launches – quite easily it seems.īut…a helicopter on Mars? Yes! It's happening!
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