NASA Helicopter Makes History With Successful Flight On Mars

NASA’s experimental robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early on Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet.

The solar-powered miniature robot’s debut on the Red Planet marked a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment for NASA, which said success could pave the way for new modes of exploration on Mars and other destinations in the solar system.

The robot rotorcraft was programmed to ascend 10 feet straight up, then hover and rotate in place over the Martian surface for half a minute before settling back down on its four legs.

JPL officials said data returned from Mars showed that this had in fact occurred.

During NASA’s own coverage of the event livestreamed from JPL headquarters, NASA also displayed the first images from the flight.

Data confirming the historic flight reached Earth three hours after the flight, relayed through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Once on its way, the data took nearly 16 minutes to cross the 178-million-mile gulf between Mars and Earth.

Moments later, initial images were displayed, including a short video shot by Perseverance showing the small helicopter lifting off, hovering and setting down.

An elated MiMi Aung, the Ingenuity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said “We can now say human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet!”.