NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter achieves historic powered flight on Mars
The first image from Ingenuity's historic flight on Mars, showing the helicopter's shadow as it hovers midair. | Image: NASA / JPL NASA's Ingenuity helicopter nailed a successful debut test flight on Mars, engineers confirmed early Monday morning. The tiny spacecraft lifted itself 10 feet off the Martian surface for 39 seconds, marking the first powered flight on another world. The historic demonstration opens up tantalizing possibilities for a new mode of planetary travel that could send future rotorcraft far beyond the reach of traditional rovers.
The four-pound Ingenuity helicopter lifted its tissue box-sized body at 12:34PM Mars time (3:34AM ET, Earth time), spinning its twin rotor blades to achieve its first flight in the ultrathin atmosphere of Mars. Those blades spun faster than 2,500 rpm - much faster than the roughly 500 rpm helicopters need to fly on...