Mars exploration | An ingenious helicopter can fly on Mondays

France Media

The Innovation Journey, the maiden flight of a robotic vehicle to another planet, aims to allow NASA to collect invaluable data on life conditions on Mars.

“NASA expects to begin the first flight of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter from Monday, April 19,” the agency said.

The data can be obtained “a few hours after the autonomous flight” which should start around 3:30, according to NASA.

The flight is a real challenge, because the density of Mars’ air is equivalent to only 1% of Earth’s atmosphere. However, by forcing air as it rotates, fans can lift the device.

This means that creativity has to spin its rotor blades much faster than a helicopter on the ground to fly.

After the flight, the helicopter will transmit technical data to the vehicle about what it has achieved, which in turn will be sent to Earth.

Among these early data, there will be a black and white image of the Earth captured by Ingenuity right below it when it is in the air.

The next day, once its batteries are recharged, the helicopter will send a color image of the horizon, captured by its other camera.

But the most exciting images have to come from the persevering rover, placed several meters away for observation, to film the journey.

If successful, the second flight may take place after four days at most. Up to five flights are planned in total, the difficulty increases.

NASA would like to be able to lift the helicopter up to 5 meters and then try to move it sideways.

The process on Mars will be analogous to the first robotic flight on Earth, in 1903, by the Wright brothers. A piece of fabric from this plane that took off more than a century ago in North Carolina, USA, was placed on board Ingenuity.

Whatever happens, after a month or less, the experience of creativity will cease, leaving perseverance to focus on its main mission: to search for traces of ancient life on Mars.