Hey Space Placers!
History has been made today as evidenced by this picture from Mars!
SHADOW SELFIE BY INGENUITY
Credit: NASA
117 years and almost 170 million miles distant from when the Wright Brothers flew the very first aircraft for 12 seconds, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter flew for 39.1 seconds and achieved an altitude of 10 feet on Mars. Aeronautical and space exploration history was made with this first off planet Earth flight.
Yesterday's blog gave the background info for today's anticipated flight but it went according to plan. Ingenuity lifted off the surface of Mars at 3:34 a.m. EDT and performed flawlessly. The flight was video recorded by Ingenuity's "Mother Ship" Perseverance Mars Rover:
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is planning to do five more flights with Ingenuity in the near future to determine the flight envelope and capabilities of the helicopter. They may even push Ingenuity to the limit and crash it to get the best data. Perseverance will have to move on in its own exploration starting in May.
"Dare Mighty Things" is JPL's motto and they certainly proved themselves daring today.
Sky Guy in VA
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