NASA will soon try to fly a helicopter over Mars: “It really is like the Wright brothers’ moment”

NASA already boasts of 8 successful Mars landings. To up the game, the renowned space centre is going to send a rover called Perseverance which will carry the Ingenuity helicopter along with it for the ride. The Helicopter will be the first of its kind to take a tour of the red planet.

The 4-pound weight helicopter is going to hitch a ride along with the rover for close to 7 months and after touchdown, will start on its solo flight. After it has been dropped onto the Martian soil, it will slowly raise itself 10 feet into the planet’s extremely thin atmosphere and try to go higher and higher at a distance of 6 feet.

“It really is like the Wright brothers’ moment,” said project manager MiMi Aung. She has one month to squeeze in as many helicopter hops as possible before the rover moves on to more pressing geologic work.

Perseverance- the rover would boast of the latest landing tech, along with the most microphones and cameras that have ever been assembled on a vehicle leaving the earth’s atmosphere. It will also contain super sanitised tubes which would hold rocks and soil- evidence (if any).

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