Big Milestone: NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter powered up in space for the first time

NASA's Mars helicopter, named Ingenuity, successfully powered up for first time in on August 7, one week into its near seven-month journey to red planet with  Perseverance rover. Ingenuity is first helicopter designed to fly on ar planet.

During eight-hour operation, performance of rotorcraft's six lithium-ion batteries was analyzed as team brought ir charge level up to 35%. project has determined a low charge state is optimal for battery health during cruise to Mars.

"This was a big milestone, as it was our first opportunity to turn on Ingenuity and give its electronics a 'test drive' since we launched on July 30," said Tim Canham, operations le for Mars Helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Sourn California. "Since everything went by book, we'll perform same activity about every two weeks to maintain an acceptable state of charge."

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Handle 's harsh environment

2-kilogram helicopter – a combination of specially designed components and off--shelf parts – is currently stowed on Perseverance's belly and receives its charge from rover's power supply. Once Ingenuity is deployed on Mars' surface after Perseverance touches down, its batteries will be charged solely by helicopter's own solar panel. If Ingenuity survives cold Martian nights during its preflight checkout, team will proceed with testing.

"This charge activity shows we have survived launch and that so far we can handle harsh environment of interplanetary ," said an official at JPL. "We have a lot more firsts to go before we can attempt first experimental flight test on ar planet, but right w we are all feeling very good about future."

small craft will have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight-test window. If it succeeds, Ingenuity will prove that powered, controlled flight by an aircraft can be achieved at Mars, enabling future Mars missions to potentially d an aerial dimension to ir explorations with second-generation rotorcraft.

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