The first helicopter is anticipated to are trying the first-ever flight on Mars on Sunday (April 11), with NASA unveiling the outcomes a day later, and also it is seemingly you’ll maybe perchance perchance also note it all online.
NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity flight protection in actuality begins at present (April 9) with a preflight press convention at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). You would possibly maybe well perchance perchance also peer which are dwelling on Narrate.com and on this internet page, courtesy of NASA TV, or straight a ways from NASA Television, the NASA smartphone app, the company’s internet plot and plenty of different social media platforms (such because the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s YouTube and Fb channels.)
Whereas Ingenuity, which rode to Mars on the belly of the Perseverance rover, is anticipated to take to the air on Sunday, the recordsdata from that flight gained’t near on Earth till early Monday (April 12). That’s when NASA’s next webcast comes in. At 3: 30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT) on Monday, NASA will livestream the flight recordsdata’s arrival. You would possibly maybe well perchance perchance also additionally peer that on Narrate.com or straight a ways from NASA TV.
Video: Gaze NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity test its blades!
“The flight date would possibly maybe well perchance also shift as engineers work on the deployments, preflight exams, and automobile positioning of each and every Perseverance and Ingenuity,” NASA said in an announcement, noting that timing will be updated on the helicopter’s webpage as critical.
“If the helicopter flies … as anticipated, the livestream will expose the helicopter team analyzing the first test flight recordsdata in JPL’s Narrate Flight Operations Facility,” the company added. Mars is plenty of minutes gentle-flee a ways from Earth and thus, Ingenuity will take to the air autonomously and we are able to handiest know of its internet site after the truth.
Controllers at JPL are within the course of a three-month intense inaugurate to the ambitious Perseverance mission, working on “Mars time” to coordinate their inner clocks with the 24 hour, 37-minute “sol” of each and every Martian day.
They’ve been on this mode since Feb. 18, when Perseverance alighted on Mars on a long-time-frame quest to procure indicators of earlier habitability and to cache promising samples for a planned future sample-return mission. Ingenuity is a test fragment of the mission and has up to 31 days (30 sols) of planned flights to test the concept of supporting ground missions with taking photos and collecting recordsdata from the air.
There will even be plenty of livestreamed media briefings linked with the flight; contributors of the public can query questions about social media the employ of the hashtag #MarsHelicopter.
The preflight briefing at present at 1 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) will to outline what to expect. Briefing contributors are anticipated to encompass:
- MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager, JPL
- Tim Canham, Ingenuity operations lead, JPL
- Amelia Quon, Ingenuity chamber test engineer, JPL
- Elsa Jensen, Mastcam-Z uplink operations lead, Malin Narrate Science Programs
JPL expects to attain a postflight briefing at 11 a.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Monday (April 12), reckoning on how the day goes. Accurate timing would possibly maybe well perchance also shift, so peer social media channels for updates.
Furthermore, NASA plans three casual talks called “Taking Flight: How Girls Can Grow Up to Be Engineers” to “focal point on helping ladies chart a direction to engineering and provide invitations to particular events for ladies and females attracted to the sphere,” the company said.
Up to now, the talks are scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on three days: April 15; April 22 and April 29. Nonetheless the company said that particular dates and cases will almost certainly be adjusted after Ingenuity’s first flight.
Put together Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Put together us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
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