ingenuity – Queer Sci Fi

MARS: Ingenuity Takes Its Maiden Flight

April 19, 2021 by scott

The aerial exploration of Mars has begun. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter lifted off on the Red Planet early this morning (April 19), performing the first-ever powered flight on a world beyond Earth. The 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper was scheduled to rise from the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater at 12:31 a.m. EDT (0431 GMT) today, get a maximum of 10 feet (3 meters) above the red dirt and land after roughly 40 seconds aloft. At about 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT), data came down from Ingenuity — via its much larger partner, NASA’s Perseverance rover — that the little rotorcraft had … Read more

Just In From Mars – The First Color Photo

April 8, 2021 by scott

OK, so it’s just dirt. But still…: NASA’s little Mars helicopter has opened its eyes on the Red Planet. The 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper, known as Ingenuity, snapped its first color photograph on Saturday (April 3), shortly after being lowered to the Martian dirt by the Perseverance rover. The tableau shows “the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater and a portion of two wheels of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover,” agency officials wrote in a description on Monday (April 5), when the photo was released. Full Story From Live Science