Good News Message From Mars
NASA's Tiny Helicopter Ingenuity Sends Mars Status Report Source: NASA Perseverance and Ingenuity NASA's Perseverance rover's travelling companion to Mars, mini-helicopter Ingenuity, has sent a positive status report to NASA Mission Control. Ingenuity sent it by phone. Ingenuity is a small helicopter drone that will detach from Perseverance and attempt the first drone flight on another planet. It weighs 4 pounds and is specifically designed to fly in the Martian atmosphere which is 100 times thinner than the Earth's atmosphere. The helicopter is equipped with a camera and will take images of the Martian surface. Next Steps Perseverance will take the next 30 to 60 days to find an area suitable for Ingenuity to take off and land on. In the next several days, the mission is to get Ingenuity's batteries fully charged. The power source is Perseverance's radioisotope power reactor. NASA h