The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) regained contact with its Mars helicopter Ingenuity on January 21, after it was unable to communicate with it towards the end of its 72nd flight on the red planet Mars.
Key points
- The small robotic chopper Ingenuity is the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.
- On July 30, 2020, NASA launched a spacecraft towards Mars, carrying the Perseverance rover, which had Ingenuity attached to its belly.
- On February 18, 2021, Perseverance successfully landed on the red planet.
- On April 4, 2021 the helicopter was deployed on the surface. It was only after the rover reached a suitable “airfield” location, it released Ingenuity to the surface.
- The chopper made its first flight on Mars on April 19, 2021. It rose to a height of 10 feet, hovered for 30 seconds, and then descended back to the ground.
- According to NASA, flight at Mars is challenging because the Red Planet has a significantly lower gravity – one-third that of Earth’s – and an extremely thin atmosphere with only 1% the pressure at the surface compared to our planet.
