NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has been dormant for the past two months because it’s still winter at Jezero Crater, which means overnight temperatures drop to as low as -124 degrees Fahrenheit. This also means that there is not enough solar energy hitting its panels to maintain charge in the batteries both day and night.
On the bright side, the panel continues to create enough charge to make shorter hops possible during the day. That’s what the team did on Flight 29 on June 11th, and have planned for Flight 30, which could take place as early as this weekend. We’re still waiting for Ingenuity to fly over this doorway on Mars that Curiosity stumbled upon.
- Bring to life the rocket launch that took humans to the moon with the meter-high (approximately 1: 110 scale) model rocket of the NASA Apollo Saturn V
- The Saturn V rocket kit includes 3 removable rocket stages (first, s-ii second, and s-ivb third) below the launch escape system, command and service...
- After building the Saturn V rocket, you can display the spacecraft horizontally with 3 stands; The Lunar Lander docks with the command and service...
We’ve scheduled takeoff for later in the afternoon – around 16:00 local Mars time – to give Ingenuity’s batteries a chance to obtain as much charge as possible. When things get underway, the helicopter will climb to a max altitude of 16.5 feet (5 meters), translate sideways about 6.5 feet (2 meters), and then land. Total time aloft will be around 33 seconds,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity Team Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
