At the beginning of April, NASA makes its first attempt to fly a helicopter in the skies of Mars

The US Space Agency (“NASA”) has announced that in early April it is organizing the first operation of a motor vehicle on a planet other than Earth, when an attempt will be made to take off the small helicopter “Ingenuity “in the atmosphere of Mars.

Even now, the very light ingenuity, which resembles a large drone, is still folded and mounted under the Perseverance mobile robot that landed on the surface of the Red Planet last month.

“The best estimate available at the moment (for the first flight) is April 8,” Ingenuity chief engineer Bob Ballaram said at a press conference, but clarified that it is possible that there is a change in the date set for his conduct.

If the test passes, it will be a great success, because the density of the Martian atmosphere does not exceed one percent of the density of the Earth’s atmosphere.

This Martian event will be as important as the achievement represented by the first engine flight on the planet in 1903. NASA reported that a small piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ plane, which took off more than a century in North Carolina, was placed on “Ingenuity” in greeting First Ground Flight, and so it is currently on Mars.

This first exit is expected to be very straightforward, as the helicopter will take off vertically, then ascend to a height of three meters and hover at that level for 30 seconds, then spin around before turning. land again.

The helicopter will receive its instructions from Earth a few hours before, but it will analyze its position relative to the surface of Mars on its exit, taking 30 photos per second.

Up to five outputs

And NASA has already determined the area in which the helicopter will fly over and is north of the mobile robot’s landing site.

Farah Ali Bey, a NASA official in charge of coordinating the robot and helicopter teams, said Perseverance would have to travel on wheels to this runway, “which takes a few days.”

The robot will place the helicopter in the appropriate place for take-off, then pass it overhead to move away. Perseverance should be enough in less than 25 hours to make room for the sunlight the helicopter needs to generate its energy from solar panels, so it can warm up on the cold nights of Mars.

The mobile robot will then be parked at an observation point that will allow it to take photos with its camera for the “Ingenuity” flight.

NASA intends to conduct up to five sorties over a month and are classified as Difficult.

The helicopter consists of four superimposed legs, a frame and two propellers. It measures 1.2 meters from one end of the blade to the other. The fans spin at 2,400 rpm, which is five times faster than a regular raft.

The program of this helicopter cost the agency “NASA” about 85 million dollars.

In the future, such vehicles could play a very important role in the exploration of the planet thanks to their ability to reach places that roving robots could not reach (above canyons, for example).

The American space agency is working on another pilot project as part of the “Dragonfly” mission, which will send a drone in 2026 to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, to reach it in 2034.

And “NASA” recalled that experiments with the flight of motorless vehicles on another planet had already been carried out in the past by sending weather balloons in 1985 to Venus as part of the “Vega” program in which the Soviet Union was cooperating. with other countries.