Preparation to fly, ingenuity touched the surface of Mars

Suara.com – NASA helicopter from Mars, Ingenuity, touching the surface of the Red Planet after ejecting from the stomach of the Perseverance explorer.

The space agency announced on April 4. Ingenuity’s first flight will take place a week later.

“#MarsHelicopter landing confirmed! The 471 million km journey over @NASAPersevere ended with the last 4 inches of descent from the explorer’s belly to the surface of Mars today, “ wrote the NASA JPL Twitter account on April 4.

Weighing 1.8 kilograms, the Ingenuity is a small, solar-powered helicopter that relies on a rechargeable battery to keep its system warm during cold Mars nights.

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Once removed from the explorer’s stomach, the helicopter will start using the internal battery to power the vital heater.

“This heater keeps the interior of the helicopter around 45 degrees Fahrenheit from a cold Mars night, where temperatures can drop to minus (-) 130 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Bob Balaram, chief engineer of NASA’s Mars Helicopter project. Space.com, Monday (5/4/2021).

Ingenuity’s landing on Planet Mars. [Twitter]

The heater can also protect key components such as batteries and some sensitive electronics from harm in very cold temperatures.

Mission team members will monitor Ingenuity’s battery temperature and performance over the weekend to ensure the helicopter is in good working order.

Ingenuity is scheduled to make its first flight on April 11, with data from the test flight reaching Earth on April 12.

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The $ 85 million mission is the first helicopter to be sent to another planet designed to test future flying vehicle technology.

If all goes well, Ingenuity will undertake a series of longer flights over the Jezero Crater, where Perseverance landed on February 18 for 31 Mars days.

NASA is planning a series of tests before the first flight to power Ingenuity’s four rotor blades, in which the rotors will rotate at up to 2,537 revolutions per minute.

As a new technology, helicopters are only part of NASA’s Perseverance rover mission.