A Decrease font size. A Reset font size. A Increase font size.
Washington - The US Space Agency (NASA) announced that the small "Ingenuity" helicopter installed under the mobile robot "Perseverance", which arrived in February (last February) to Mars, separated from the main vehicle and is now on the surface of the Red Planet. And it was "Ingenuity". A very light weight that resembles a large drone that is folded and installed under the mobile robot “Perseverance”, which landed on the surface of the Red Planet on February 18, and remained in place until the robot reached the place from which the helicopter is supposed to take off. And in another tweet The laboratory noted that “the (helicopter’s) 293 million mile (471 million km) flight ended with this small 4-inch (10 centimeter) jump from the rover’s belly to the surface of Mars,” adding that “the next test: survival at night.” And an image accompanying the tweet showed the robot “Perseverance” moving away from the helicopter, and it should move away in less than 25 hours, enough to give way to the sunlight that the helicopter needs to generate its energy through solar panels, so that it can warm itself during the cold Martian nights. The chief engineer of the Mars helicopter project, Bob Balaram, explained that "there is a small cooler that allows to maintain a temperature of about seven degrees Celsius inside the helicopter, while temperatures at night on Mars drop to a degree below zero." He explained that this matter "helps protect the main equipment." for the device.” Over the next two days, the ground crew will check whether the solar panels are working as intended, before starting to test the engines and sensors before the first flight, which is not expected until April 11. Ingenuity will carry out the first flight of a motorized vehicle on a planet other than the earth. If the test is successful, it will be a major achievement, as the density of the Martian atmosphere does not exceed one percent of the density of the Earth’s atmosphere. A small canvas from the Wright Brothers plane that took off more than a century ago in the US state of North Carolina was placed on “Ingenuity” in tribute to the first ground flight, and therefore it is currently on Mars. The helicopter will receive its instructions from Earth a few hours before, but it will itself analyze Its location relative to the surface of Mars during its flight, by taking 30 pictures per second. The mobile robot will be stationed at a control point that allows it to take pictures with its camera of the “Ingenuity” flight. In the future, such vehicles could play a very important role in planetary exploration thanks to their ability to reach places that mobile robots cannot reach (above canyons, for example). The past by sending weather balloons in 1985 to Venus as part of the “Vega” program in which the Soviet Union cooperated with other countries.- (AFP)
8:54 PM 04-04-2021 Share it Facebook Twitter Linkedin WhatsApp Via email Print