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NASA launched a helicopter on Mars for the first time ever

NASA says more flights are planned.

by
Josiah Motley
April 19, 2021

Image: NASA / JPL

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This week, for the first time ever, there has been a helicopter flight on another planet. Early Monday morning, NASA launched the Ingenuity space helicopter on Mars. It hovered around 10 feet off the ground for 30 seconds. The drone was carried by the Perseverance rover.

While anything that happens on the Martian planet is noteworthy, this helicopter flight is especially interesting as not only is it the first time anything like this has happened, but the atmosphere on Mars had people wondering if it was even possible. That’s because Mar’s atmosphere is 1% the density of Earth’s.

https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1384101674650722310

READ MORE: Will Elon Musk go to Mars?

To put that in perspective, this feat would be like flying a drone three times as high as the peak of Mount Everest, according to Business Insider.

This will not be the only flight for Ingenuity and NASA. With this first flight being a success, four more flights are planned over the next month. These next flights will also be for longer periods of time and should be higher as well.

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, tells BI, “We are aware that failure is more likely in this kind of scenario, and we’re comfortable with it because of the upside potential that success has.”

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