Why in the News?

• NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter, which was sent to Mars strapped to the Perseverance rover, will take its first experimental flight on the Red Planet.

What is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter?

• NASA had unlocked the rotor blades of its Ingenuity helicopter, thereby allowing them to spin freely. 
• Ingenuity, a 1.8-kilogram rotorcraft, will become the first helicopter to fly on another planet.
• The helicopter’s mission is experimental in nature and completely independent of the rover’s science mission, which is searching for signs of ancient life and collecting samples of rock and sediment in tubes for potential return to Earth by later missions.
• It has a wireless communication system, and is equipped with computers, navigation sensors, and two cameras. 
• It is solar-powered, able to charge on its own.

Importance of  Ingenuity Mission:

• According to NASA, the helicopter was placed on the Martian surface to test for the first time ever-powered flight in the planet’s thin air. 
• Its performance during these experimental test flights will help inform decisions about small helicopters for future Mars missions , where they can perform a support role as robotic scouts, surveying terrain from above, or as full standalone science craft carrying instrument payloads.
• NASA will try and demonstrate rotorcraft flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars with this helicopter, which is why the mission is so crucial.

Reference:

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/ingenuity-mars-significance-of-helicopters-mission-7270835/