NASA launched a helicopter over the surface of Mars for the first time in history

On April 19, NASA managed to launch the autonomous aircraft Ingenuity over the surface of Mars for the first time. This is a small helicopter that was delivered to the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover two months ago.

Ingenuity rose 3 meters above the surface of Mars and hovered in place for 30 seconds - as planned. This test climb from a distance was filmed by the Perseverance rover, which will later be able to send photos and videos of the flight. Live NASA showed analysis of the primary data and the first black-and-white frame, which was performed by Ingenuity himself - he sent a photo of his shadow on the surface of Mars.

Ingenuity is a two-bladed rotorcraft designed specifically for flying in an alien atmosphere. It will help you find locations for research and plan a route for the rover, assessing the relief and other characteristics of the terrain. This helicopter weighs only 1.8 kilograms, and the diameter of the carbon fiber propellers was 1.2 meters.

This is what the Ingenuity screws check looked like a few days ago:

Fortune favors the bold. (But we still have a back-up plan.) #MarsHelicopter project manager MiMi Aung explains why the team is optimistic about the first flight attempt on Monday: https://t.co/cwCEcDvoQZpic.twitter.com/CR4jQBGr2M

- NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 18, 2021

🚁 #MarsHelicopter Update

We're targeting as soon as Monday for the first controlled flight on Mars. Watch with the team as they receive data and find out if they were successful. Meet us in mission control April 19 at 6:15 am ET (10:15 am UTC): https://t.co/xAdT9tgYr1pic.twitter.com/8wJEr3CLJa

- NASA (@NASA) April 17, 2021

Ingenuity's main mission is to help Perseverance, which has high hopes of finding evidence of past or even present life on Mars. The rover will also collect soil samples, which will be picked up by special robots sent by NASA and the European Space Agency at the end of the 2020s. From a global perspective, data from Perseverance should help guide program design colonization of Mars.