Another day at the office
No biggy, just a little drone flight on MARS.
Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).
“Ingenuity is the latest in a long and storied tradition of NASA projects achieving a space exploration goal once thought impossible,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “The X-15 was a pathfinder for the space shuttle. Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner rover did the same for three generations of Mars rovers. We don’t know exactly where Ingenuity will lead us, but today’s results indicate the sky – at least on Mars – may not be the limit.”
The solar-powered helicopter first became airborne at 3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT) – 12:33 Local Mean Solar Time (Mars time) – a time the Ingenuity team determined would have optimal energy and flight conditions. Altimeter data indicate Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds. It then descended, touching back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight. Additional details on the test are expected in upcoming downlinks.
It’s kind of like the Wright brothers only more so.
NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen announced the name for the Martian airfield on which the flight took place.
“Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first flight on our planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world,” Zurbuchen said. “While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and 173 million miles of space, they now will forever be linked. As an homage to the two innovative bicycle makers from Dayton, this first of many airfields on other worlds will now be known as Wright Brothers Field, in recognition of the ingenuity and innovation that continue to propel exploration.”
It’s like the Wright Brothers in the sense that the flights were short.
Also, the helicopter had a bit of fabric from the wing of the Wright brothers’ plane on the underside of its solar panel.
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Neil Armstrong took some bits of fabric and propeller from the Wright Flyer with him to the Moon. Those ones came back.
https://time.com/5418950/first-man-neil-armstrong-wright-flyer/
I definitely wouldn’t have the patience to be so careful, which is one of the many reasons NASA would never hire me. I’d be controlling that thing with an app on my phone, soaring it all over the place making zooming noises with my mouth.
I’m 50 next year.
Ingenuity excites me especially for flying in the Martian atmosphere with a density 1% of ours, because it means this equation from the late 1800s still works to relate the thrust (T), density (ρ), area (A), and power (P):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum_theory
This is the first time I’ve seen Ingenuity referred to as a ‘drone.’ This would seem to be the obvious descriptor. But of course, ‘drones’ are evil unfair military gear.
I picked it up from the sources I saw. The word still isn’t in my vocabulary, so much so that I keep wondering “how the HELL did they get that shot????” and not figuring it out until someone spells it out for me down the page. So dumm.
Drones are in common use for photography and videography. Many people I know own them. I see them in the store and advertised often. Costs and capabilities vary widely, but small ones intended for use by children are less than $50. So it seems very natural to me to call this device a drone.