Rotorcraft
NASA Helicopter Lands On Mars
NASA's Ingenuity micro copter was parachuted onto the planet’s surface from the belly of the Perseverance rover.
NASA's coaxial rotor Ingenuity is equipped with four carbon fiber main rotor blades and is powered by solar cells and batteries. (Image: NASA)
NASA's coaxial rotor Ingenuity is equipped with four carbon fiber main rotor blades and is powered by solar cells and batteries. (Image: NASA)

A NASA helicopter has landed on Mars. Attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover, the four-pound Ingenuity micro copter was parachuted onto the planet’s surface at Jezero Crater on Thursday afternoon following a flight that began at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 30, 2020. "The Ingenuity team has done everything to test the helicopter on Earth, and we are looking forward to flying our experiment in the real environment at Mars," said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.


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