Mars Helicopter - Blog Posts

ICYMI: New sounds from Mars dropped! Turn the volume up to hear our Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flying on the Red Planet.

Captured by our Perseverance Mars Rover, this is the first time a spacecraft on another planet has recorded the sounds of a separate spacecraft. In this audio track, Perseverance used its SuperCam microphone to listen to the Ingenuity helicopter on April 30, 2021 as it flew on Mars for the fourth time.

With Perseverance parked 262 feet (80 meters) from the helicopter’s takeoff and landing spot, the mission wasn’t sure if the microphone would pick up any sound of the flight. Even during flight when the helicopter’s blades are spinning at 2,537 rpm, the sound is greatly muffled by the thin Martian atmosphere. It is further obscured by Martian wind gusts during the initial moments of the flight. Listen closely, though, and the helicopter’s hum can be heard faintly above the sound of those winds.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

A dream takes flight! Today, our Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.

In a video captured by our Perseverance Mars rover, the helicopter is shown hovering above the Red Planet's surface. During this first flight, the helicopter climbed to an altitude of 10 feet (3 meters), hovered, and then touched back down on the surface of Mars.

More images and video to come...

Join us at 2 p.m. ET (18:00 UTC) for an analysis of Ingenuity’s first flight and what's to come:

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com