By Tim Binnall
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made history early Monday morning when it took flight on Mars and became the first autonomous aircraft to operate on another world. According to a press release from the space agency, the four-pound device lifted off the surface of the Red Planet and rose to an altitude of 10 feet, hovered in place for 30 seconds, and then safely landed back on the ground. Due to the vast distance between the Earth and Mars, it took around three hours for engineers at the space agency to receive the data which confirmed that the helicopter had pulled off the feat, which lasted approximately 40 seconds.
The remarkable moment was captured in photographs from both the nearby Perseverance rover, which had shuttled the helicopter to Mars, as well as from the craft itself. Containing no scientific instruments, the device's purpose on the Red Planet was to serve as a proverbial proof of concept to show that autonomous flights could be accomplished on another world where both gravity and the atmosphere are considerably different from that of the Earth. Scientists say that Monday morning's successful endeavor will pave the way for future advanced aircraft being sent to Mars for more extensive scientific missions.
Attached to the Ingenuity helicopter was a small piece of fabric that once comprised part of the wings of the first airplane flown by the Wright brothers back in 1903. That historic connection was emphasized by NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen who mused that "while these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and 173 million miles of space, they now will forever be linked." To that end, the space agency announced that the location on Mars where Ingenuity took flight for the first time had now been named 'Wright Brothers Field.' After analyzing all of the data from the helicopter's first flight, the space agency aims to launch the craft again "no earlier than April 22" and, if that is also a success, "the Ingenuity team will consider how best to expand the flight profile."