Historical fact that NASA has been able to witness today. With great difficulty, the Ingenuity helicopter was able to make a short 30-second flight over the surface of Mars. In this way, it is the first time that a device manages to fly somewhere other than Earth.
Difficulty has been one of the protagonists during the flight of the drone on the neighboring planet. NASA engineers explained that conditions were not favorable and that flying on Mars was going to be "very difficult." The reasons are none other than the low density of the surface of the planet, 1% of the Earth, in addition to the 470 million kilometers of distance between both planets.
On the other hand, problems arose before success. In the first attempt to fly, a rotor failure appeared. The engineers looked for solutions but also evaluated all scenarios. Of the five, the first was that the helicopter continued making the same error as at the beginning; in the other two it was that the drone was not able to complete the route; the last, success, as it has been.
This was the small but giant flight of Ingenuity on Mars
At 1:00 p.m., the JPL Flight Operations Facility was able to receive the data from the 1.8 kilo drone that traveled together with the Perseverance rover.
The small drone rose three meters above the ground. Once it reached the maximum it made a small turn, but without horizontal movement. After the mentioned 30 seconds it landed.
This test will be followed by four more flights in the next thirty days, in which it will be seen how the helicopter responds to greater difficulty.
Of course, the only function that this drone has is to demonstrate that it can fly over a surface outside of Earth, since it does not have scientific instruments to help Perseverance in the search for traces of water in the Jezero crater, where there are evidence that in the past there was a lake. <blockquote class="»twitter-tweet»"><p lang="»en»" dir="»ltr»">You wouldn't believe what I just saw. <br><br>More images and video to come…<a href="/en/»https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarsHelicopter/?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw»">#MarsHelicopter</a><a href="/en/»https://t.co/PLapgbHeZU»/">https://t.co/PLapgbHeZU</a> <a href="/en/»https://t.co/mbiOGx4tJZ»/">pic.twitter.com/mbiOGx4tJZ</a></p>— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) <a href="/en/»https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1384104815567855626/?ref_src=twsrc^tfw»">April 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="»https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js»" charset="»utf-8″"></script>
What can now be certified is that the possibility of flying on Mars is possible. In the words of JPL engineer Taryn Bailey, this is confirmed: "It's whether we can fly on Mars and the answer is yes."