Helicopter Prowess: NASA announces flight plan

It is a technical and test demonstration of the future exploration of the planet Mars next to us. Today, Tuesday evening, the US space agency will report at a press conference on specific plans to use the Guardians of Creativity. The protective cover that secured the aircraft when it landed has already been removed. It will now be on Mars forever.

The helicopter can actually be seen in a NASA photo. The A plane weighing about two kilograms (In Martian gravity it weighs only 680 grams) with four vanes (1.20 meters in diameter) located below the rover. After that, Perseverance will head to the Ingenuity launch site, which NASA will also announce on Tuesday. Then the helicopter can be adjusted, the rover moves away again, and then it can take off. One or more trips are planned for 31 days, that is, 30 days on Mars.

In the first test, the creativity should fly a few meters high and stay in the air of Mars for 20 to 30 seconds. If this works, then more, longer flights should be followed. During this time, Rover Perserverance will monitor flights. If the 30-day time window on Mars expires, the rover will continue its exploration on Mars.

During its mission, Ingenuity will provide a completely new vision of Mars. So this usage plays a major role in more missions, as the helicopter can scan many areas that are inaccessible by rover, such as mountain peaks, trenches or caves. But this will only be done through the successor to creativity. Marsheli I will thereafter remain as a monument on the red planet. And perhaps at some point Mars colonists will make a pilgrimage to the place where a human machine first began and landed on an alien planet.

You can attend the press conference on using creativity today (23.03.) Here from 6:30 pm live Follow. You can even ask yourself questions on NASA’s social media channels using the hashtag #MarsHelicopter.