NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures First Ever Mars Helicopter Flight
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter completes the first powered, controlled flight on another planet while the Perseverance rover records the historic event from a distance.
NASA's Perseverance rover captures the first video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter as it completes the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The rover watches from a distance of 211 feet at the Van Zyl Overlook in Mars' Jezero Crater, using its Mastcam-Z cameras to chronicle the historic operation.
During this initial flight, the 4-pound rotorcraft climbs to an altitude of 10 feet, hovers steadily, and then touches back down safely on the Red Planet's surface. This moment marks a major milestone as the small helicopter proves its ability to operate in the thin Martian atmosphere.
Ingenuity serves purely as a technology demonstration to determine whether future Mars explorations successfully incorporate an aerial perspective. The helicopter travels to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover, which lands in February 2021 before deploying the aircraft to the surface in early April.