NASA space copter ready for first Mars flight
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
January 27, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
NASA space copter ready for first Mars flight

Science

BSS/AFP
10 April, 2021, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 10 April, 2021, 12:20 pm

Related News

  • NASA, Boeing team up to develop lower-emissions aircraft
  • NASA issues award for greener, more fuel-efficient airliner of future
  • Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope finds its first planet – and it is very similar to Earth
  • Last surviving Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dies at 90
  • NASA formally retires Mars InSight lander after 4-year mission

NASA space copter ready for first Mars flight

“The helicopter is good, it’s looking healthy,” said Tim Canham, Ingenuity operations lead, in a press conference

BSS/AFP
10 April, 2021, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 10 April, 2021, 12:20 pm
Photo: AFP Via BSS
Photo: AFP Via BSS

The helicopter that NASA has placed on Mars could make its first flight over the Red Planet within two days after a successful initial test of its rotors, the US space agency said Friday.

The current plan for the first-ever attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet is for the four-pound (1.8 kilogram) helicopter, dubbed the Ingenuity, to take off from Mars' Jezero Crater on Sunday at 10:54 pm US eastern time (0254 GMT Monday) and hover 10 feet (3 meters) above the surface for a half-minute, NASA said.

"The helicopter is good, it's looking healthy," said Tim Canham, Ingenuity operations lead, in a press conference.

"Last night, we did our 50 RPM spin, where we spun the blades very slowly and carefully," he said.

The plan for Sunday is to have it rise, flying only vertically, hover and rotate for 30 seconds to take a picture of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on Mars on February 18 with the helicopter attached to its underside.

Then the Ingenuity will be lowered back down onto the surface.

The flight will be autonomous, pre-programmed into the aircraft because of the 15 minutes it takes for signals to travel from Earth to Mars, and also due to the demanding environment of the distant planet.

"Mars is hard not only when you land, but when you try to take off from it and fly around, too,"said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager.

She explained that the planet has significantly less gravity than Earth, but less than one percent the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at the surface.

The makes it necessary for the Ingenuity to be able to spin its rotor blades much faster than a helicopter on Earth in order to fly.

"Put those things together, and you have a vehicle that demands every input be right," said Aung.

NASA captured the test of the rotors in a short video shot from the rover just a few meters away, showing what looks like a small drone.

Aung said a second test would be conducted today, with the rotors running at high speed.

"The only uncertainty remains the actual environment of Mars," she said, mentioning possible winds.

NASA calls the unprecedented helicopter operation highly risky, but says it could reap invaluable data about the conditions on Mars.

NASA plans up to five flights, each successively more difficult, in a period of a month.

Top News / World+Biz

NASA / Mars

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: Bloomberg
    India's Adani slammed by $48 bln stock rout, clouding record share sale
  • Global central banks preaching on pay are enforcing squeeze too
    Global central banks preaching on pay are enforcing squeeze too
  • Infograph: TBS
    State banks spend 80% of their forex for govt imports in H1

MOST VIEWED

  • Simulated image shows the positions and orbits of the newly discovered 591 high velocity stars by a Chinese research team. Photo: National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Star visibility eroding rapidly as night sky gets brighter: study
  • The NASA logo hangs in the Mission Operations Control Center at Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, U.S., October 26, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
    NASA, Boeing team up to develop lower-emissions aircraft
  • Photo: Collected
    12-million-year-old whale fossil skull found in Maryland
  • Photo: Collected
    New species of lizard discovered in Peru national park
  • A view of a fossil at the area where scientists discovered megaraptor fossils at 'Guido' hill in the Chilean Patagonia area, close to Torres del Paine park, in Magallanes and Antarctic region, Chile in this undated handout photo provided by the Instituto Chileno Antartico on January 16, 2023. Instituto Chileno Antartico/Handout via REUTERS
    Scientists unearth megaraptors, feathered dinosaur fossils in Chile's Patagonia
  • Represenattional image. Photo: Collected
    Alcohol consumption in any quantity can be detrimental to health, says US study

Related News

  • NASA, Boeing team up to develop lower-emissions aircraft
  • NASA issues award for greener, more fuel-efficient airliner of future
  • Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope finds its first planet – and it is very similar to Earth
  • Last surviving Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dies at 90
  • NASA formally retires Mars InSight lander after 4-year mission

Features

Sketch:TBS

Why we need consumer education for consumer wellbeing

7h | Thoughts
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute. Illustration: TBS

Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response

8h | Thoughts
December-er shohor, taxi taken for airport and the Park Street bathed in lights. Photo: Jannatul Naym Pieal

Exploring Kolkata on foot, empowered by Google Maps

9h | Explorer
Island hopping in Bangladesh?

Island hopping in Bangladesh?

11h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

23h | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

21m | TBS Entertainment
PCB recalls cricketers from BPL ahead of PSL

PCB recalls cricketers from BPL ahead of PSL

1d | TBS SPORTS

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]