The American Space Agency NASA has always been at the forefront of activities related to exploring alien planets like Mars. It believes in a measured approach and set the trend by placing a robot on August 6, 2012. This machine, appropriately named Curiosity, is still active. It has been exploring the rugged terrain. The next robot to land on Mars was InSight on November 26, 2018. Its task was to explore the region below the surface. The latest addition is the Perseverance rover that carried Ingenuity, the helicopter. It will confirm the feasibility of conducting aerial surveys.
NASA relies on a combination of Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and Renewable Energy to play vital roles in colonizing the red planet. These will help humans to control happenings millions of miles away in distant locations. Mars is now waiting for Ingenuity to open up new horizons.
Daily Mail UK reports the Ingenuity helicopter is set to create history when it gets airborne and flies through the atmosphere of Mars. The Perseverance rover recorded images as the helicopter separated from the rover. It could undertake its first flight on April 11. The duration would be for 90 seconds, during which time it would take off, hover in place and then return for landing. The success of the operation would determine the fate of the mission.
Ingenuity could get the label of the first vehicle to fly on another planet. It traveled millions of miles to reach Mars, where it landed on April 4.
Ingenuity on Mars will provide a boost to NASA
The helicopter is physically on Mars, and meticulous planning has gone into every activity associated with the first flight on another planet.
It is a costly experiment, and its success would set the pace for colonization. Daily Mail UK adds there are certain critical factors involved in the flight. One of these is the local patterns of the wind. A system aboard Perseverance will take care of this aspect. Once everything is in place, NASA will pass on necessary instructions to Ingenuity to unlock its rotors.
When the helicopter flies on Mars
Then will come the liftoff, flight, and landing back to base. It will be a short-duration confidence-building mission. In January 2019, a report in the media mentioned that Elon Musk is upbeat about SpaceX's unmanned missions to Moon and Mars. Daily Mail UK adds that Perseverance will send back to Earth relevant engineering data and, possibly, images and video from the onboard cameras after completing the first flight. Subsequently, NASA scientists will share the flight test results at a media conference that same day. Curiosity captured images of Mars, and the Perseverance rover will record sound bites.
New era on the horizon of Mars
According to CNET, NASA has several wheeled rovers on the red planet.
These are robots programmed to gather a wide-ranging variety of information related to Mars. Scientists on the ground study these to formulate future strategies. They are working in the belief that the now barren planet might have harbored some lifeforms in the past. There are images of the topography that reveal signatures of the flow of water. The robots of NASA are working 24X7, but the progress is slow because of the difficult terrain. Therefore, a helicopter will be joining to carry out aerial mapping. The purpose of Ingenuity on Mars is to show that it is possible to have powered flight in another world. It is now alone on the red planet that can witness nighttime temperatures of around minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The helicopter has survived this so far.
