Ingenuity Preparing For First Flight On Mars

On April 3rd, the helicopter called Ingenuity, was deployed on Mars' surface.

How will it fare on cold Martian nights?  Temperatures can drop as low as -130F.  Yikes!

They plan to wiggle the blades(4 ft. length) and test the internal systems.  Hopefully it will be good to go in about a week.

Ingenuity is a technology based mission - just to see if we can fly a vehicle in Mars' very thin atmosphere, which is only about one percent  of Earth's atmosphere.  So "lift" is quite the challenge here.  That  is why Ingenuity is so light, only 4 pounds.

It feels like a Wright Brothers moment just ahead, but a long, long way from Kitty Hawk!  

Stay tuned!

Perseverance Rover - The helicopter, Ingenuity, was strapped to the belly of Perseverance before it was deployed.