Can It Take Off Even on an Alien Planet... US Mars Exploration Drone's First Flight Imminent

Will Humanity Achieve the First Successful Flight on Another Planet?
NASA: "Comparable to the Wright Brothers' First Flight Attempt"

The Mars flight drone Ingenuity developed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] The first flight of the flying drone onboard NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, which successfully landed on Mars last month and began exploration, is imminent. This has drawn attention as it could mark humanity's first successful powered flight on another planet.

On the 23rd (local time), NASA announced that it had completed the search for a takeoff site for Ingenuity, the drone carried by Perseverance, ahead of its first flight. If all goes well, Ingenuity's takeoff attempt is planned for April 8. If Ingenuity succeeds in taking off, it will become the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet in human history. NASA described this as "comparable to the Wright brothers' first attempt at human flight."

According to NASA, the purpose of this first flight is to test whether the drone can fly in the Martian atmosphere. The drone will attempt to take off to a height of 3 meters and then land again. From the fourth flight onward, it plans to fly farther to survey Perseverance's future exploration routes. Ingenuity is expected to perform a total of five flights during the Perseverance mission.

Previously, NASA's Mars exploration focused on mobile exploration missions. NASA used mostly stationary exploration instruments for Mars missions until 1997, but starting with Sojourner, the first mobile rover in 1997, NASA has sent a total of five mobile rovers to Mars, including Perseverance. The development of these mobile rovers is considered a revolutionary turning point in Mars research history because it enabled more comprehensive exploration by moving the instruments along desired paths.

Since then, NASA has been pursuing the development of flying exploration vehicles capable of freer movement. However, developing flying drones was not easy due to Mars' very thin atmosphere. It is understood that taking off in the Martian atmosphere, which is only one-hundredth the density of Earth's atmosphere, was itself a significant challenge. According to the NYT, attempting to take off from the Martian surface is equivalent to attempting takeoff at 30 km above Earth's surface.

To address this, NASA designed dual rotors that rotate in opposite directions to minimize reactive torque and maximize lift during takeoff by using coaxial counter-rotating rotors. In addition, they succeeded in reducing the drone's weight to as light as 1.8 kg. As a result of these development efforts, Ingenuity, a drone capable of flying in the Martian atmosphere, was born.

The NYT analyzed, "Ingenuity holds a similar significance to Sojourner's first mobile exploration," adding, "It is revolutionary in that flying exploration, capable of free movement without terrain constraints over a wider area, can now be realized."

On the 11th, the Mars rover Perseverance took pictures of its surroundings and sent the photos to NASA. [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Earlier, NASA successfully landed the fifth mobile rover, Perseverance, on Mars on the 19th of last month and is currently investigating traces of water and geological components. Additionally, Perseverance is equipped with an oxygen production device that plans to experiment with converting carbon dioxide, which makes up 96% of the Martian atmosphere, into oxygen. If this experiment succeeds, it will prove that oxygen can be produced autonomously on Mars, making it possible to create an environment suitable for human habitation in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.