NASA Helicopter Set to Take Flight on Mars Includes Piece of Wright Brothers' 1st Airplane
A piece of the Wright brothers’ first airplane is on Mars.
NASA’s experimental Martian helicopter holds a small swatch of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, the space agency revealed Tuesday.
The helicopter, named Ingenuity, hitched a ride to the red planet with the Perseverance rover, arriving in February.
Ingenuity will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet no sooner than April 8.
It will mark a “Wright brothers’ moment,” Bobby Braun, director for planetary science at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said.
The Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio, the Wrights’ hometown, donated the postage stamp-sized piece of muslin from the plane’s bottom left wing at NASA’s request.
The swatch made the 300 million-mile journey to Mars with the blessing of the Wright brothers’ great-grandniece and great-grandnephew, park curator Steve Lucht said.
“Wilbur and Orville Wright would be pleased to know that a little piece of their 1903 Wright Flyer I, the machine that launched the Space Age by barely one quarter of a mile, is going to soar into history again on Mars!” Amanda Wright Lane and Stephen Wright said in a statement provided by the park.
Orville Wright was on board for the world’s first powered, controlled flight on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The brothers took turns, making four flights that day.
A fragment of Wright Flyer wood and fabric flew to the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969. A swatch also accompanied John Glenn into orbit aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998. Both astronauts were from Ohio.
NASA’s 4-pound helicopter will attempt to rise 10 feet into the extremely thin Martian air on its first try. Up to five increasingly higher and longer flights are planned over the course of a month.
The material is taped to a cable beneath the helicopter’s solar panel, which is perched on top like a graduate’s cap.
For now, Ingenuity remains attached to the rover’s belly. A protective shield recently dropped away, exposing the spindly, long-legged chopper.
The helicopter airfield is right next to the rover’s landing site.
The rover will observe the test flights from a distant perch before driving away to pursue its own mission: hunting for signs of ancient Martian life. Rock samples will be set aside for eventual return to Earth.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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