NASA’s Mars rover has part of the Wright brothers’ first plane

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which is attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover, holds a small relic of the Wright Brothers’ first plane, which took to the skies more than 100 years earlier.

A small amount of material from the wings of the Wright brothers’ plane, known as the Flyer, is now aboard Ingenuity, which arrived on Mars on February 18, NASA revealed in a statement Tuesday.

The small tissue sample was wrapped with duct tape around a cable under the helicopter’s solar panel, the agency wrote.

The Wright brothers, NASA noted, used the same type of material – an unbleached muslin called “Pride of the West” – to cover the plane’s glider and wings from 1901.

“While Ingenuity will attempt the first powered and controlled flight on another planet, the first powered and controlled flight on Earth took place on December 17, 1903, over the windswept dunes of Kill Devil Hill, near Kitty Hawk, in North Carolina. Orville and Wilbur Wright traveled 120 feet in 12 seconds on the first flight. The Wright brothers made four flights that day, each longer than the last, ”the statement from NASA read.

“A small amount of the material that covered one of the wings of the Wright brothers’ plane, known as the Flyer, on the first flight is now on board Ingenuity,” the statement added.

The fabric sample, which is the size of a postage stamp, made the 300 million mile expedition to Mars with the blessing of the Wright brothers’ great-great-niece and great-grand-nephew, The Associated Press reported, citing a curator of the Carillon Historical Park, who donated the piece to NASA.

“Wilbur and Orville Wright would be happy to know that a small piece of their 1903 Wright Flyer I, the machine that launched the space age by barely a quarter of a mile, will make history again on Mars. ! ” Amanda Wright Lane and Stephen Wright said in a statement that the park was provided to the PA.

Another piece of the material, in addition to a small chip of wood from the Wright Flyer, was also aboard the July 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon, NASA noted.

Ingenuity is on track to attempt the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet by April 8 at the earliest, NASA wrote. Before the Ingenuity can attempt the first flight, the helicopter and its team must pass a series of “intimidating milestones,” the NASA statement said.

For now, the helicopter remains attached to Perseverance’s belly, NASA wrote.

On July 30, Perseverance launched into space toward Mars from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to search for signs of past life on the Red Planet. On February 18, the rover successfully landed on Mars, becoming the fifth rover that NASA sent to the Red Planet.