NASA Invites Public to Take Flight With Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

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Apr 06, 2021, 15:32 ET

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA is targeting no earlier than Sunday, April 11, for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's first attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet. To mark a month of Ingenuity flights, the agency will host several events to bring people along for the ride.

A livestream confirming Ingenuity's first flight is targeted to begin around 3:30 a.m. EDT Monday, April 12, on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website, and will livestream on multiple agency social media platforms, including the JPL YouTube and Facebook channels.

Ingenuity arrived at Mars' Jezero Crater Feb. 18, attached to the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover. The helicopter is a technology demonstration with a planned test flight duration of up to 31 days (30 Mars days, or sols). The rover will provide support during flight operations, taking images, collecting environmental data, and hosting the base station that enables the helicopter to communicate with mission controllers on Earth.

The flight date may shift as engineers work on the deployments, preflight checks, and vehicle positioning of both Perseverance and Ingenuity. Timing for events will be updated as needed, and the latest schedule will be available on the helicopter's Watch Online webpage:

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Watch-Online

News Briefing and Televised Event Schedule

Virtual media briefings before and after Ingenuity's first flight attempt and the livestream coverage of the flight attempt will originate from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

A preflight briefing at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT) Friday, April 9, will provide the latest details on the helicopter's operations and what to expect on the first flight day.

Briefing participants are expected to include:

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, NASA Headquarters
MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager, JPL
Tim Canham, Ingenuity operations lead, JPL
Amelia Quon, Ingenuity chamber test engineer, JPL
Elsa Jensen, Mastcam-Z uplink operations lead, Malin Space Science Systems

If the helicopter flies on Sunday, April 11, as expected, the livestream will show the helicopter team analyzing the first test flight data in JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility beginning at 3:30 a.m. EDT (12:30 a.m. PDT) Monday, April 12.

A postflight briefing is expected to take place at 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT) Monday, April 12.

Members of the media who wish to participate in the briefings by telephone must provide their name and affiliation at least two hours before each briefing to Rexana Vizza at: [email protected].

The public and the media also may ask questions on social media during the briefings and livestream using #MarsHelicopter.

Additional Media Opportunities

Live shots and remote live interviews via Zoom will be offered in English and Spanish from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT (3 to 10 a.m. PDT) Friday, April 9. To book a live shot window, media should complete and submit the form available at:

https://forms.gle/6dbMULmkBe7yj9HNA

Interview requests outside that window can be arranged by calling JPL's Digital News and Media Office at 818-354-5011 or completing the form available at:

https://bit.ly/mars-landing-media

Public and Student Opportunities

On Thursday, April 8, at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT), students can watch a special conversation with members of the rover and helicopter teams on the NASA-JPL Edu YouTube channel and NASA TV.

A series of informal talks, titled, "Taking Flight: How Girls Can Grow Up to Be Engineers," will take place Thursday, April 15; Thursday, April 22; and Thursday, April 29; at 4 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. PDT) each day, with exact dates and times based on Ingenuity's first flight. The talks will focus on helping girls chart a path to engineering and provide invitations to special events for girls and women interested in the field.

More About Ingenuity

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration is supported by NASA's Science, Aeronautics Research, and Space Technology mission directorates. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations for Ingenuity and the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

Follow Ingenuity via the @NASA, @NASAJPL, and @NASAMars Twitter accounts; NASA and NASAPersevere Facebook accounts; and NASA Instagram account. Join the conversation, ask questions, and get answers online by using #MarsHelicopter.

An Ingenuity press kit, with more information about the helicopter, is available at:

https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit

To learn more about Ingenuity, visit:

https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity

To learn more about Perseverance, visit:

https://nasa.gov/perseverance

and

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

SOURCE NASA