A small helicopter was successfully flown on Mars by the US space agency.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America (NASA) made history yesterday by flying a powered aircraft on Mars for the first time.
Despite the fact that the drone, dubbed Ingenuity, was only in the air for less than a minute, Nasa is celebrating the first powered, operated flight by an aircraft on another planet.
A satellite on Mars broadcast the chopper’s data back to Earth, providing confirmation.
In the coming days, the space agency promises even more daring flights.
Engineers can control ingenuity to fly higher and further as they continue to push the technology to its maximum.
“We can now claim that humans have flown a rotorcraft on another world,” MiMi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said with delight.
“We’ve been dreaming about our ‘Wright Brothers moment’ on Mars for a long time, and now it’s finally here.”
The “airstrip” in Jezero where Perseverance fell off Ingenuity for its demonstration will now be known as the “Wright Brothers Field,” according to Nasa.
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