One small hop for Nasa from Mars surface

Nasa’s experimental helicopter Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars yesterday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet. The triumph was hailed as a Wright brothers moment. The mini 1.8kg copter carried a bit of wing fabric from the Wright Flyer that made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. It was a brief hop – just 39 seconds and 3m. ‘‘Goosebumps. It looks just the way we had tested,’’ project manager MiMi Aung said as she watched the flight video.