WASHINGTON - NASA’s Perseverance explorer will land on the red planet on Feb. 18, but the rover won’t be the only newly arrived robotic explorer. The wheeled robot carries the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity on its belly, and NASA has posted a handy list of things to know about this mission. Although, several of the six facts seem to drive home that NASA doesn’t really know if Ingenuity is going to work. In fact, it could still be seen as a success at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory even if it crashes on its first flight, Ryan Whitwam reports for Extreme Tech. Continue reading original article.
The Intelligent Aerospace take:
January 27, 2021 -The Mars helicopter weighs in at four pounds on Earth (and 1.5 pounds on Mars) and has rotors that come in at four feet tip-to-tip. It is powered by a solar panel that charges Lithium-ion batteries, which allows for one 90-second flight per Martian day. In that time, it can fly up to 980 feet at an altitude up to 15 feet. It will fly autonomously.
Related: Six things to know about NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
Related: Smiths Interconnect’s contact technology launched on NASA Mars Perseverance Rover
Related: Northrop Grumman contributes navigation system for NASA’s mars rover mission
Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
