NASA on Monday announced that its space helicopter Ingenuity had made history by becoming “the first craft to achieve controlled, powered flight on a planet beyond Earth.”
“Perseverance got us to Mars. With Ingenuity, we soar higher,” the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted. “The #MarsHelicopter made history today by being the first craft to achieve controlled, powered flight on a planet beyond Earth.”
The Ingenuity helicopter weighs 4 pounds on Earth and around 1.5 pounds on Mars due to the differences in gravity. It is powered by solar panel-charged Lithium-ion batteries that provide enough energy for one 90-second flight per day on Mars.
A glitch in Ingenuity’s onboard computer during a rotor test had postponed its first flight, Space.com reports, but a software fix was transmitted to the aircraft that allowed for the historic flight.
The flight was initiated automatically and due to time delays, NASA engineers had to wait about three hours after the flight had completed to know that it had been a success.
“We operate on what’s called ‘Earth receive time,’ ” Robert Braun, JPL director for planetary science, said. “What we’re watching on the livestream is the signal that’s coming back in real-time from Mars. In reality, the helicopter will have flown autonomously several hours earlier.”
As the first successful flight on Mars, Ingenuity also carried a piece of the first successful flight on Earth with it CNN notes, a small piece of muslin cloth from the bottom left wing of the original Wright plane.