How NASA's Mars helicopter will reach the red planet's surface
Thursday, June 25, 2020 - 09:00
in Astronomy & Space
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will travel with the Perseverance rover through 314 million miles (505 million kilometers) of interplanetary space to get to Mars. But for the team working on the first experimental flight test on another planet, engineering the final 5 inches (13 centimeters) of the journey has been among the most challenging of all. To safely navigate those 5 inches—the distance Ingenuity will travel from where it's stowed on the rover to the surface of Mars—they came up with the ingenious Mars Helicopter Delivery System.