This article was updated on April 17.
The first helicopter is expected to attempt the first flight to Mars on Monday (April 19) and you can follow it all online. The flight has been delayed since April 11.
Coverage of NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity flight will begin at 6:15 am EDT (1015 GMT) on Monday, with a post-flight press conference in 2 pm EDT (1800 GMT). You can watch it live on Space.com and on this page, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly from NASA Television, NASA’s smartphone app, the agency’s website, and various social media platforms (such as YouTube and Facebook of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory). )
Ingenuity, which traveled to Mars in the belly of the Perseverance rover, is expected to take off at 3:30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT) on Monday, but data from that flight will not reach Earth until several hours later. . From NASA 6:15 am EDT The live broadcast will cover the arrival of that data with live views from Ingenuity’s control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Video: Watch NASA’s helicopter ingenuity test its blades!
“The flight date may change as engineers work on deployments, pre-flight checks, and vehicle positioning for both Perseverance and Ingenuity,” NASA said in a statement, noting that the time will be updated in the helicopter website as needed.
“If the helicopter flies … as expected, the live feed will show the helicopter crew analyzing data from the first test flight at JPL’s Space Flight Operations Facility,” the agency added. Mars is several minutes away at the speed of light from Earth and therefore Ingenuity will take to the air autonomously and we will only know about its state after the fact.
JPL controllers are in the midst of an intense three-month start to the ambitious Perseverance mission, working on “Mars time” to coordinate their internal clocks with the 24-hour, 37-minute “sun” of each Martian day.
They have been in this mode since February 18, when Perseverance landed on Mars on a long-term search to find signs of ancient habitability and cache promising samples for a planned future sample return mission. The ingenuity is a test part of the mission and has up to 31 days (30 soles) of flights planned to test the idea of supporting ground missions with imaging and data collection from the air.
There will also be several live media briefings associated with the flight; Members of the public can ask questions on social media using the hashtag #MarsHelicopter.
The post-flight briefing on Monday at 2pm EDT (1800 GMT) will include flight details for:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate
- Michael Watkins, Director of JPL
- MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Project Manager, JPL
- Bob Balaram, Chief Engineer for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL
- Håvard Grip, Chief Pilot of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL
- Justin Maki, Perseverance Mars rover imaging scientist and Mastcam-Z instrument deputy principal investigator at JPL
The exact time on live broadcasts can change, so check social media channels for updates.
Additionally, NASA plans two more informal talks called “Taking Flight: How Girls Can Grow Up to Be Engineers” to “focus on helping girls chart a path to engineering and provide invitations to special events for girls and women interested in the field, “he said the agency.
The talks are scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on April 22 and April 29. But the agency stated that the exact dates and times could be adjusted after the first Ingenuity flight.
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