Mars flight test today promises a Wright Brothers moment
NASA readies to send miniature helicopter buzzing over surface of red planet
NASA hopes to score a 21stcentury Wright Brothers moment today as it attempts to send a miniature helicopter buzzing over the surface of Mars in what would be the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.
Landmark achievements in science and technology can seem humble by conventional measurements. The Wright Brothers’ first controlled flight in the world of a motor-driven airplane, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903 covered just 120 feet in 12 seconds.
Ingenuity’s modest debut
A modest debut is likewise in store for NASA’s twin-rotor, solar-powered helicopter Ingenuity.
If all goes to plan, the 1.8-kilogram whirligig will slowly ascend straight up to an altitude of 10 feet above the Martian surface, hover in place for 30 seconds, then rotate before descending to a gentle landing on all four legs.
While the mere metrics may seem less than ambitious, the “air field” for the interplanetary test flight is 278 million miles from Earth, on the floor of a vast Martian basin called Jezero Crater. Success hinges on Ingenuity executing the preprogrammed flight instructions using an autonomous pilot and navigation system.
“The moment our team has been waiting for is almost here,” Ingenuity project manager MiMi Aung said at a recent briefing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.
NASA itself is likening the experiment to the Wright Brothers’ feat, paying tribute to that monumental first flight by having affixed a swath of wing fabric from the original Wright flyer under Ingenuity’s solar panel.
The robot rotorcraft was carried to the red planet strapped to the belly of NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance that touched down on February. 18 after a nearly seven-month journey through space.