Here Is The Ingenuity, A NASA's Helicopter That Will Fly On Mars

Mini helicopters ready to fly on Mars (NASA Space Flight)

JAKARTA - The United States (US) space agency NASA will fly its first mini helicopter on Mars. The small helicopter named Mars Ingenuity is carried in the Perseverance rover robot.

NASA plans to fly the Mars Ingenuity helicopter on April 8. This marks the first aircraft to be operated on another planet.

Mars Ingenuity helicopter has been pinned to the inside of Perseverance which is conducting exploration on the Red Planet. Perseverance will remove the barrier covering Ingenuity and at this time, the robot explorer is heading for the helicopter flight point it was carrying.

🚁Did you know that NASA's aeronautical innovators had a hand in the creation of the first flying vehicle on Mars? The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was developed by @NASAJPL with substantial contributions from @NASAAmes and @NASA_Langley. Learn more: https://t.co/2iUX3g6oZt pic.twitter.com/ar0mEAISUC

- NASA Aeronautics (@NASAaero) March 23, 2021

Previously, NASA confirmed that the helicopter was an experiment and could not be successful. Operating a helicopter on Mars will be much more difficult than operating on Earth. The cause is differences in atmosphere, temperature, and sunlight supply.

The Ingenuity, designed by the NASA team, is small, light, and able to keep a number of its essential components warm in very cold temperatures. The mini helicopter has been tested several times using simulations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Nonetheless, the design team is nervous about the upcoming efforts to make Ingenuity's flight on Mars next month. The chief designer of the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, Farah Alibay, gave an explanation regarding the mini helicopter.

"Like helicopters, this type of deployment has never been done before. Once we started implementing it, there is no turning back. All activities are closely coordinated, irreversible, and dependent on one another", said Alibay.

"Even if something doesn't go according to plan, we may decide to postpone the soles or so until we have a better idea of what's going on", she added.