NASA in world of its own

WASHINGTON: NASA successfully flew its mini helicopter Ingenuity on Mars early Monday, the first powered flight on another planet and a feat the agency likened to “our Wright brothers moment”.

The 1.8kg rotorcraft rose to a height of 3m, swivelled its tissue-box sized body, swayed in a gentle Martian breeze and then touched down after 39.1 seconds.

Data and images from the flight were transmitted 278m km back to Earth where they were received by NASA’s array of ground antennas and processed almost three-and-a-half hours later.

Engineers in orange polo shirts were glued to their screens at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where the mission had been planned for the past six years.

“We’ve been talking so long about our Wright brothers moment on Mars, and here it is,” said Ingenuity project manager MiMi Aung to her team.