The dream of “Ingenuity“is reality. The drone-helicopter of the Nasa soared up Mars, the first take-off and landing on a planet other than Earth that opens up new scenarios for the future of Martian exploration.
During the night, the engineers of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Jpl) had sent the commands for the flight to the drone-helicopter for the Italian 9,31 today and more than three hours later the data arrived on Earth.
The signal was transmitted by Ingenuity to the Perseverance rover, which on April 3 had released the drone on the Martian surface, after taking it with it on the long journey from Earth; from the rover the signal was transmitted to the probe of the Mars 2020 mission which is in the Martian orbit, which then sent it to Earth.
Space, the NASA Perseverance rover landed on Mars in search of life
Ingenuity’s flight, which weighs just 1.8 kilos, took place completely automatically. As expected it lasted about 40 seconds and the drone lifted about three meters, to land on its four legs. Then the vehicle rested to recharge the batteries.
“A dream takes flight,” he tweeted there Nasa. “The ingenuity of the helicopter on Mars has flown into the subtle atmosphere of the Red Planet” reads the tweet, accompanied by the video of the technicians who cheer and clap their hands at the arrival of the data that confirmed the successful undertaking.
“In the coming days”, the US space agency announced, “other flights are planned. And in the future – adds the agency – the flying robotic means of exploration could join new rovers and even astronauts in their explorations”.