NASA’s Mars Helicopter Completes First Flight on Another Planet
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/science/nasa-mars-helicopter.html Source: By Kenneth Chang , The New York Times. Excerpt: A small robotic helicopter named Ingenuity made space exploration history on Monday when it lifted off the surface of Mars and hovered in the wispy air of the red planet. It was the first machine from Earth ever to fly like an airplane or a helicopter on another world. ...Like the first flight of an airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903, the flight did not go far or last long, but it showed what could be done. Flying in the thin atmosphere of Mars was a particularly tricky technical endeavor, on the edge of impossible because there is almost no air to push against. NASA engineers employed ultralight materials, fast-spinning blades and high-powered computer processing to get Ingenuity off the ground and keep it from veering off and crashing.... See also April 22 NY Times article, NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Completes Second Flight .