Have you ever dreamed about living on another planet? Well, let me tell you that your dream might come true someday. NASA's Ingenuity Rotorcraft or drone is a demonstration that took place on Mars a few weeks ago. It is considered the first valid attempt at a controlled aerial landing on a planet that is not Earth. “We can now say that human beings have flown a rover craft on another planet,” said MiMi Aung, project manager of Ingenuity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.“This could be the start of a new era,” stated Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at North Carolina State University. This outstanding accomplishment has led many scientists around the world to think about the roles aerial vehicles will have on future space explorations in the solar system. In 1985, the Soviet Union proved it was possible to fly to Mars with its “Vega Balloons”.
NASA’s rotorcraft landed on Mars's Jezero crater. "The planet’s atmosphere is incredibly thin, just 1 percent. that of Earth, so generating lift is exceedingly difficult. “It’s similar to Earth at about 100,000 feet above the ground,” says Ben Pipenberg, an engineer at defense contractor AeroVironment, who helped build Ingenuity. The drone's spades spun at 2,500 revolutions per minute. Furthermore, it rose three meters tall where it wavered for 30 seconds and achieved a 96-degree turn. Next, it dropped back to the ground, arriving on its four legs, with a complete flight rate of 39.1 seconds. Ingenuity's fifth flight was completed on May 7th and was planned for it to be the last flight. Scientists believe that these vehicles could be able to support and assist humans in activities like carrying tools and in the future, we might encounter ourselves with further advanced robotics and even flying vehicles! Humans could explore lava tubes or even reach crater walls.
I believe this is an amazing achievement and thanks to NASA, future flights to Mars and more profound space exploration including the solar system will be possible. Could you imagine going to Mars for Christmas? Crazy, right? Thanks to the marvelous scientific inventions it might be possible so I suggest you don't quit that dream. Bob Balarman, Ingenuity chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said "We may get a couple more flights in over the next few weeks, and then the agency will evaluate how we're doing...We have already been able to gather all the flight performance data that we originally came here to collect. Now, this new operations demo gives us an opportunity to further expand our knowledge of flying machines on other planets," he added on NASA's website.
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Bibliography:
Wall, Mike. “NASA's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Lands at New Airfield after 5th Flight.” Space.com, Space, 8 May 2021, www.space.com/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-fifth-flight-new-airfield.
O'Callaghan, Jonathan. “First in Flight: NASA Just Proved Flying on Mars Is Possible-Next Up Is the Solar System.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 8 May 2021, www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-in-flight-nasa-just-proved-flying-on-mars-is-possible-next-up-is-the-solar-system1/.