Ingenuity, NASA's newest Mars mission, will look to fly its four-pound helicopter on a controlled mission as soon as this weekend.
In order to survive, the small helicopter unfurled from the belly of NASA's Mars rover, Perseverance, and generated its own power from the sun. This historic feat, the flying of a helicopter on Mars, is the first powered, controlled flight in any world beyond Earth!
Flying in a controlled manner on Mars is far more difficult than flying on Earth. The Red Planet has significant gravity (about one-third that of Earth’s) but its atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s at the surface. During Martian daytime, the planet’s surface receives only about half the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth during its daytime, and nighttime temperatures can drop as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit, which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components.
With it's fourth flight complete, Ingenuity has completed its "tech demo," and will now transition to the operations demonstration phase to explore how rovers and aerial explorers can work together in the future.
