A NASA video shows a spectacular event on Mars – one that has already made history.
Pasadena – Landings on Mars are now almost routine for the US space agency Nasa. But seeing an aircraft on a strange planet is still new. With the Mars rover “Perseverance”, the small helicopter “Ingenuity” landed on the red planet in February 2021. It was the first aircraft to fly on a strange planet – an achievement with historical dimensions that NASA likes to compare to the Wright brothers’ first flight. Flying in the thin atmosphere of the red planet is not as easy as it sounds.
Now a video that “Perseverance” broadcast from Mars shows a helicopter flight on the red planet – a unique sight when you consider that an aircraft has never been over the red planet or any other celestial body (with the exception of Earth ) has flown.
Nasa video shows extraordinary event on Mars
The video published by NASA shows an excerpt from the thirteenth flight of the Mars helicopter “Ingenuity”. The US space agency announced that the helicopter flew over Mars for a total of 160.5 seconds on September 4, 2021. It was the most complicated flight by “Ingenuity” to date, because the aircraft had flown over different types of terrain in the “Séítah” region. The task of the helicopter was to photograph a certain terrain formation from different perspectives during this flight. A rover team is then asked to analyze whether this terrain formation is of interest for the rover to examine.
Nasa helicopter flies on Mars – an extraordinary event
The video showing the extraordinary event on Mars was recorded by the NASA rover “Perseverance” from a distance of about 300 meters. While the camera in the “right eye” of the rover took close-ups of the take-off and landing of the helicopter, the camera in the “left eye” took a wide-angle image in which the entire historical flight on Mars can be seen.
On its thirteenth flight on Mars, the “Ingenuity” helicopter first ascended to a height of around eight meters before doing a little pirouette to align its color camera. The Mars helicopter then flies to its destination, only to return shortly afterwards. To get a feel for the dimensions in the video: The landing site of “Ingenuity” is about twelve meters from the launch site.
Research on Mars: NASA mission causes a stir
The Ingenuity mission on Mars is extremely successful. The helicopter is currently preparing for its sixteenth flight on Mars. It is not planned for November 20, 2021 at the earliest. While the helicopter provides historic moments on Mars, the “Perseverance” rover has already caused a sensation several times: even before it moved for the first time, it had a big one Mystery solved on Mars. He has also sent a picture to earth on which a viewer claims to have recognized “partially covered skeletons” on Mars.
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The NASA rover has also prepared rock samples for transport back to earth. In the future, another Mars mission is to pick up these samples and transport them back to Earth. But researchers are sounding the alarm: Such missions could lead to an “alien invasion” – extraterrestrial bacteria could thus reach the earth. (tab)
