NASA, and its Perseverance rover, are making preparations for the first attempt at the powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. This would be the 4 lb. Ingenuity rotor craft, which is presently attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover. Perseverance touched down on Mars on Feb. 18.
From the point that Ingenuity is detached from Perseverance and deployed, it will have 30 Martian days, or sols (31 Earth days) to conduct its test flight campaign. NASA is setting the test flight campaign at no earlier than April 8.
A NASA news release, “NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Prepares for First Flight,” presents some of the challenging steps ahead:
“Flying in a controlled manner on Mars is far more difficult than flying on Earth. The Red Planet has significant gravity (about one-third that of Earth’s) but its atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s at the surface. During Martian daytime, the planet’s surface receives only about half the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth during its daytime, and nighttime temperatures can drop as low as -130° Fahrenheit (-90° Celsius), which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components.
