Ingenuity: A Mini Helicopter Now on Mars
Explanation:
What if you could fly around Mars?
NASA may have achieved that capability last month with the
landing of Perseverance, a rover which included a small
flight-worthy companion called
Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny.
Even though Ginny is small -- a
toaster-sized helicopter with four long legs and two even-longer
(1.2-meter) rotors, she is the first of
her
kind --
there has never been anything like her before.
After being deployed, possibly in April, the
car-sized Perseverance ("Percy")
will back away to give Ginny ample room to attempt her
unprecedented first flight.
In the
featured artistic illustration, Ginny's long rotors are depicted
giving
her the
lift
she
needs to fly into the
thin Martian atmosphere and explore the area near Perseverance.
Although Ingenuity herself will not fly very far,
she is a prototype for all future airborne Solar-System robots that may fly far across
not only
Mars, but
Titan.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
