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The small helicopter aboard NASA Perseverance rover had his first look at the red planet.
The 4 books. (1.8 kilograms) chopper, a technological demonstration named Ingenuity, traveled to Mars attached to the belly of Perseverance. Over the weekend, Perseverance dropped the debris shield that protected Ingenuity during the rover’s epic February 18 landing on the floor of Jezero Crater.
Decision helps pave the way for Ingenuity test flights, which could take place from the first week of April.
“The debris shield disappears, and here’s our first look at the helicopter. It’s tucked to the side, folded, and locked in place, so there’s some reverse origami to do before I can put it down. first, I’m going to the designated ‘heliport’, a few days’ drive from here, ”NASA officials wrote on Sunday March 21. via the rover’s official Twitter account.
Related: NASA’s Martian helicopter ingenuity explained
We’ll learn more about this helipad and the rest of Ingenuity’s flight plan at a NASA press conference tomorrow (March 23) at 1:30 p.m. EDT (5:30 p.m. GMT). You can watch the event live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency.
No rotorcraft has ever flown in a world beyond Earth. NASA is hoping that ingenuity will change that, and in important ways: successful bantam helicopter sorties could open Mars to extensive aerial exploration in the future, NASA officials said.
After the few Ingenuity flights are over, Perseverance will begin to focus seriously on its core tasks: looking for signs of old ones. Life on Mars and collecting samples for future return to Earth. The 45-kilometer-wide Jezero is a great place to do such work, mission team members said. Observations from Mars orbiters show that the crater was home to a large, deep lake and river delta billions of years ago.
Ingenuity is one of two technology demonstrations aboard Perseverance. The other, an instrument called MOXIE (“Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment”), is designed to generate oxygen from the thin Martian atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide. Larger-scale versions of MOXIE could one day help humanity settle on the Red Planet, NASA officials said.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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