Jakarta –
Helicopter Ingenuity belong to NASA going to do a historic flight on Mars. This helicopter also carries a historical object with it, a fragment of the first plane flown by the Wright brothers.
Ingenuity was carrying a piece of muslin that was part of the wings of Flyer 1, the plane that made history as Earth’s first engined flight in December 1903. The cloth the size of a postage stamp was taped to small wires under Ingenuity’s solar panels.
The historic flight was carried out by Orville and Wilbur Wright in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and Flyer 1 managed to fly 36 meters for 12 seconds. NASA also hopes to repeat the same history.
“The Wright brothers deliver air mobility as a dimension for us to be able to travel on Earth,” said Bob Balaram, Chief Engineer Ingenuity of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as quoted by Space, Thursday (25/3/2021).
“In the same way, we hope Ingenuity will enable us to expand and open up air mobility on Mars,” he continued.
Ingenuity is set to make its maiden flight on Mars on April 8, 2021. This will be the first engine flight to be carried out on another planet.
This mini helicopter has 31 days to conduct five test flights. In the first flight, Ingenuity will fly three meters high for 30 seconds before landing. The test flight thereafter will be longer with a target altitude of up to five meters.
But before making its maiden flight, Ingenuity must go through several processes. Currently Ingenuity is still in Perseverance’s stomach, the rover he was traveling on on his way to Mars, and bringing it to the surface of Mars will take six days.
Once on the air, Ingenuity will take photos and videos using its two cameras. Because it has no scientific instruments, Ingenuity will not collect any other data.
There is no guarantee that Ingenuity’s mission will succeed because of the atmosphere Mars thinner would make it more difficult for motorized flight. But if this mission is successful, NASA is optimistic that helicopters will become an important part of the next space mission.
“If we can observe and scientifically survey Mars from the air, with its thin atmosphere, we can certainly do the same thing in a number of other destinations in the solar system, such as Titan (Saturn’s largest moon) or Venus,” said JPL Director for Planetary Science. Bobby Braun.
Watch Video “NASA Introduces Ingenuity, Planet Mars Explorers Helicopter“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(vmp/fay)
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