Skip to main content

NASA’s Mars helicopter touches down on the Martian surface

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter can be seen here with all four of its legs deployed before dropping from the belly of the Perseverance rover on March 30, 2021, the 39th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter can be seen here with all four of its legs deployed before dropping from the belly of the Perseverance rover on March 30, 2021, the 39th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech

The highly-anticipated first flight of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity is fast approaching, and NASA personnel are busy getting the helicopter ready. The tiny Ingenuity helicopter has been tucked beneath the belly of the Perseverance rover up until now, but has recently been deployed by the rover and is now sitting on the Martian surface. The current aim is for Ingenuity to take its first flight next week on Sunday, April 11.

In a post from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Twitter account, engineers confirmed that Ingenuity has made its final 4-inch drop from the rover and has touched down safely on the surface of the planet. The concern now is keeping the helicopter warm enough over the frigid Mars nights so it can be ready for its test flight.

#MarsHelicopter touchdown confirmed! Its 293 million mile (471 million km) journey aboard @NASAPersevere ended with the final drop of 4 inches (10 cm) from the rover's belly to the surface of Mars today. Next milestone? Survive the night. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/XaBiSNebua

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 4, 2021

NASA gave more details about how Ingenuity will keep itself warm in a blog post about the helicopter published on Friday, March 2: “Until now it has been connected to the Perseverance rover, which allowed Ingenuity to charge its battery as well as use a thermostat-controlled heater powered by the rover. This heater keeps the interior at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit through the bitter cold of the Martian night, where temperatures can drop to as low as -130F. That comfortably protects key components such as the battery and some of the sensitive electronics from harm at very cold temperatures.”

To prepare for separation from the rover, the helicopter’s batteries were charged to 100%. That way, the helicopter can run its heater to keep itself warm. With the helicopter now on the surface, the rover moves away to allow the rays of the sun to strike Ingenuity’s solar panels to keep its battery topped up and to keep it toasty.

The NASA blog gave more details about what to expect over the next few days: “The Ingenuity team will be anxiously waiting to hear from the helicopter the next day. Did it make it through the night? Is the solar panel working as expected? The team will check the temperatures and the battery recharge performance over the next couple of days. If it all looks good, then it’s onto the next steps: Unlocking the rotor blades, and testing out all the motors and sensors.”

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
The NASA Mars helicopter’s work is not done, it turns out
The Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars, in an image taken by the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity recently made its 50th flight.

NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has been grounded since January 18 after suffering damage to one of its rotors as it came in to land.

The team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which oversees the Ingenuity mission, celebrated the plucky helicopter for achieving way more flights on the red planet than anyone had expected -- 72 in all -- and becoming the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Read more
NASA and Russian satellites just miss in ‘too close for comfort’ pass
An illustration of NASA's TIMED satellite.

There’s already enough hazardous debris in orbit, but on Wednesday, an incident occurred that almost created a whole lot more.

It involved NASA’s operational TIMED satellite and the defunct Russian Cosmos 2221 satellite, which came alarmingly close to colliding about 378 miles (608 kilometers) above Earth.

Read more
NASA astronauts need good weather for Crew-8 launch. Here’s how it’s looking
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a static fire test.

UPDATE: SpaceX and NASA are now targeting 11:16 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 2 for the launch of Crew-8.

SpaceX is preparing to launch three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

Read more