In February, a car, the Mars car Perserverance, landed on the red planet. Fixed was the small helicopter Ingenuity, which will make its first flight on Sunday night. If successful, it will be man’s first flight to Mars.
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The helicopter is just under half a meter high and weighs 1.8 kilograms. It should fly up and film a bit, and acts as a kind of drone. The plan is for it to take off about three meters from the surface, fly for half a minute and take a picture of the Mars car before it is lowered again. After the first flight, there will be four more, but not the same day when the helicopter needs to be recharged from time to time. The energy gets it from the sun.
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– Mars is difficult, not only when you have to land but also when you try to take off and fly around, says NASA’s project manager MiMi Aung (TT).
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The air pressure at the surface of Mars is less than one percent of that of the earth. The planet’s gravity is also significantly lower than ours and the atmosphere is very thin. This means that the rotor blade of the helicopter must spin very quickly. It is also impossible to control the helicopter in real time as the signal delay amounts to fifteen minutes.
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Ingenuity has passed all tests so far and Nasa is positive about the first flight.
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– The only uncertainty is the actual conditions on Mars, says MiMi Aung and mentions the possibility that winds can disturb the mini helicopter (TT).
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The operation is a flight test, a technical demonstration of what is possible to do in Mars’ atmosphere. If the test is successful, opportunities will open up for larger vessels in the future, perhaps large enough for people to sit in.
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