The ingenious helicopter is on Mars soil

Mini helicopter NASA The ingenuity that came in February
Tuesday Built under the rover
Diligence, Separated from it, so NASA announced that it is now on the surface of the red planet. This ultralight helicopter, which looks like a giant drone, was folded and built under the Perseverance rover that landed on Mars on February 18, and remained there until the rover reached the scene of the theft.

“Its journey of 293 million miles (471 million km) ended up jumping 4 inches (10 cm) from the rover’s belly to the surface of Mars. Next test: Survive overnight,” a NASA laboratory official tweeted. He had to clear his vision within 25 hours because the helicopter would need the sun to power its solar panels so that the frost could survive by warming itself up on Tuesday nights.

# Mars Helicopter Touch Down Confirmed! Its 293 million miles (471 million km) journey ASNASAPersevere It ended with a final drop of 4 inches (10 cm) from the rover’s belly to the surface of Mars. The next milestone? Survive the night. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/XaBiSNebua

– NASA JBL (ASNASAJPL) April 4, 2021

A few days before the first flight

Ingenuity has so far fed the rover’s power, but now it will have to defend itself. “There is a small radiator that helps maintain a temperature of about 7 C inside the helicopter, while the night temperature on Mars could drop to -90 to,” Bob Balaram, chief engineer of the Mars helicopter program, explained on Friday. .

“It helps protect the device’s core equipment,” he said. For the next two days, before starting to test the motors and sensors before the first flight, which is not expected to take place until April 11, the ground team will check that the solar panels are working as expected.