What is NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter? (NASA)

Scientists and researchers are delving into each and every aspect of Mars in an in-depth manner. From air, land to even inside the ground, they are taking samples and making experiments with the help of rovers and helicopter.(NASA)

Notably, Ingenuity Mars mission is experimental in nature and completely independent of the Mars rover’s science mission. It was sent to Mars to perform experimental flight tests to determine if powered, controlled flight on the Red Planet was possible, NASA says.

 Ingenuity Helicopter is a small aircraft carried to the surface of the Red Planet attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover.(NASA)

Ingenuity was deployed to the surface on April 4, 2021 and it became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19.

Flight on Mars is challenging as the surface of the red planet has lower gravity then the Earth. The atmosphere at Mars has just 1% the pressure at the surface compared to Earth.(NASA)

1% pressure at the surface means that there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity’s two 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight.(NASA)

Ingenuity is a tech marvel. The rotorcraft’s flights are autonomously piloted by onboard guidance, navigation, and control systems running algorithms developed by the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).(NASA)

The Ingenuity can’t be flown by joystick and hence the flights are not observable from earth in the real time. In the distant future, Mars helicopters might even help astronauts explore the Red Planet(NASA)