Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Awarded Prestigious Collier Trophy
upstart writes:
Defying Expectations: NASA's Pioneering Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Awarded Prestigious Collier Trophy:
The National Aeronautic Association has bestowed the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy on the team behind NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, cementing the pioneering rotorcraft's place in aerospace history just as it is about to embark on its second year of flying in the frigid, extremely thin atmosphere of the Red Planet.
Established more than a century ago, the award has marked major achievements in the timeline of flight, including Orville Wright in 1913 for developing the automatic stabilizer, Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager for his sound-barrier-breaking 1947 flight of the X-1 rocket plane, and the crews of NASA's Apollo 8, 11, and 15 for their missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and early '70s.
The National Aeronautic Association awards the trophy annually for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles." For the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, it's especially meaningful to be included among past winners after the enormous challenges they faced by seeing the project launch and take flight amid a global pandemic.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.