Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly on another planet.
After overcoming an , NASA’s $80 million Ingenuity helicopter spun up its carbon-composite rotors and lifted off the dusty surface of Mars early Monday to become the first aircraft to fly on another planet, a «Wright brothers moment» that could pave the way to future interplanetary aircraft. Tipping the scales at just 4 pounds — 1.5 pounds in the lower gravity of Mars — Ingenuity’s counter-rotating 4-foot-long rotors, spinning at more than 2,500 rpm, were commanded to change their pitch, «biting» deeper into the thin atmosphere for a liftoff from the floor of around 3:30 a.m. EDT. With the looking on from a safe distance, Ingenuity climbed 10 feet straight up, hovered, turned in place and then landed to complete a test flight spanning just 40 seconds or so. That was more than enough to make «We can now say human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet!» an elated MiMi Aung, the Ingenuity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told her socially distanced team. «We’ve been talking so long about our Wright brothers moment on Mars, and here it is. «We don’t know from history what Orville and Wilbur did after their first successful flight. I imagine the two brothers hugged each other. Well, I’m hugging you virtually right now…. We together flew at Mars, and we together have our Wright brothers moment.» Appropriately enough, the helicopter carried a postage stamp-size piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ first biplane. To honor the pioneering aviators, NASA named Ingenuity’s test site in Jezero Craer «Wright Brothers Field.» Like the historic 1903 flight, Ingenuity’s was dramatic, especially given it took three hours for data confirming a successful takeoff and landing to make its way to Earth, relayed through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Once finally on its way, the telemetry took nearly 16 minutes to cross the 178-million-mile gulf between Mars and Earth. The data began showing up on computer screens at JPL just after 6:30 a.m. Peering intently at his display, JPL’s «pilot,» Håvard Grip, announced the results, confirming Ingenuity «performed spin up, take off, climb, hover, descent, landing, touchdown and spin down.
