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First helicopter flight on another planet

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ursaminortaur
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First helicopter flight on another planet

#405396

Postby ursaminortaur » April 19th, 2021, 3:07 pm

The Ingenuity helicopter has completed its first test flight on Mars.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/19/nasas-mars-helicopter-makes-first-ever-powered-flight-on-another-planet

Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, the space agency has announced.

The small helicopter successfully took flight on the red planet on Monday morning, hovering in the air at an altitude of about 3 metres (10 feet), before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface.
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The 1.8kg solar-powered craft’s 40-second flight marked a 21st-century Wright brothers moment for Nasa, which said success could pave the way for new modes of exploration on Mars and other destinations in the solar system, such as Venus and Saturn’s Titan moon.

The helicopter has two rotors that spin in opposite directions to lift it off the ground. As well as getting around in lower gravity, the helicopter faces the challenge of flying in the Martian atmosphere, which is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s.

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