In April 2021, the Ingenuity Helicopter made its inaugural flight on Mars, marking a new milestone in planetary exploration. Here is a video of that flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMnOo2zcjXA
Ingenuity rode to the Martian surface on the belly of the Perseverance rover, the largest and most sophisticated vehicle NASA has ever sent to Mars. NASA launched the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to better understand the Martian climate and to search for signs of microbial life. It will collect samples of Martian soil to be picked up by subsequent robotic missions and returned to Earth for analysis. Additionally, Perseverance will test new technology that will help us prepare for future robotic missions and human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley made key contributions to the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. More information is at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.
Image: An illustration of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on the Martian surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech