APOD: 2021 March 2 - Ingenuity: A Mini Helicopter Now on Mars

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Ingenuity: A Mini Helicopter Now on Mars." This artist's depiction looks forward to the anticipated first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet (sometime in April). Inside the belly of Perseverance sits Ingenuity, a four-pound (1.5 pounds on Mars) rotorcraft technology demonstrator that will attempt to fly in the unforgiving Martian atmosphere. NASA received its first status report from Ingenuity from a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), where the downlink indicated that the helicopter and base station are operating as expected. Ingenuity will remain attached to Perseverance for 30 to 60 days before deploying.

The Martian atmosphere is 99 percent less dense than Earth’s, which means Ingenuity has to be very light and have large fast spinning rotor blades. Ingenuity’s blades have a wingspan of about four feet and are made from carbon fiber foam core. The first test flight will be done completely autonomously because of the communications delays between Earth and Mars. The initial goal is just to get the aircraft off the ground. Fingers crossed.