{"id":49059,"date":"2021-04-05T08:13:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T21:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=49059"},"modified":"2021-04-05T08:13:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T21:43:07","slug":"solar-ingenuity-mars-mb1942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-ingenuity-mars-mb1942\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Powered Mars Helicopter A Step Closer To First Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ingenuity

Image: NASA JPL<\/p><\/div>\n

The solar powered helicopter drone Ingenuity’s 471-million-kilometre journey aboard Perseverance ended yesterday with a 10cm drop from the rover’s belly on to the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n

Ingenuity is a technology demonstration to test powered flight on another world – and all going well, this will be the first time such a feat has occurred.<\/p>\n

Weighing 1.8 kilograms and with a rotor length of 1.2 metres from tip to tip, the Mars helicopter is powered by a solar panel charging a lithium-ion battery pack (six Sony Li-ion cells) that will provide enough energy for one 90-second flight per Martian day.<\/p>\n

It was a year ago that Ingenuity was stowed in its delivery system<\/a> on Perseverance\u2019s belly here on Earth.<\/p>\n

Over the past couple of weeks, NASA has been running through the process of deploying Ingenuity on to Mars’ surface. This included dropping the debris shield, unlocking the release system, bringing the helicopter upright and unlocking the landing legs before dropping it to the surface. There’s a good video here<\/a> demonstrating how the helicopter has been released.<\/p>\n

After release, the Perseverance rover then moved around 5 metres away from the helicopter.<\/p>\n

\"Perseverance<\/p>\n

Next Steps For Ingenuity<\/h2>\n

There’s still a lot to do before Ingenuity can take a crack at making its first flight.<\/p>\n