Monday 19 April 2021

Dare Mighty Things

I got up early this morning so I could tune in to NASA TV and watch the Mars helicopter drone, called Ingenuity, take it's first flight. It was airborne for less than a minute, and rose about 3m above the surface before swivelling and then landing, the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on another world. And that world is an incredible 178 million miles away.

Ingenuity will be commanded to fly higher and further as NASA engineers test the limits of this amazing technology. One of the project leaders compared the success to the first flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright, at Kitty Hawk in 1903, and in fact, Ingenuity carried a tiny piece of fabric from one of the wings of the aircraft that made that historic flight more than 117 years ago.

I was cheering loudly along with all the NASA engineers.

Ingenuity arrived on Mars in the Mars Rover Perseverance in February 2021. I love the fact that they are called Ginnie and Percy by the funloving NASA people.  You can read some of the technical stuff here.

Absolutely astonishing achievement.

24 comments:

  1. It is indeed an astonishing achievement but I do wish our focus was more on earth. On restoring, protecting earth. Given our treatment of our home planet I would not welcome us if I saw us coming (if that makes sense).

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    1. I agree, there has to be more focus on restoring and protecting our home planet. It's a priority. However, I'm still in awe of the science that has flown a tiny 4lb helicopter on Mars.

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  2. It is remarkable indeed. The sky is not the limit for sure!

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  3. It is a remarkable achievement but agree we should be doing more to save our planet Earth.

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    1. I agree, our home planet deserves more attention.

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  4. Did you read about the woman in charge of designing it? The helicopter was a cheap throw away extra that was a bonus if it worked. It had a mobile phone chip in it, off the shelf, that had more computing power than all the other space vehicles to date. Just blows me away. And it flew in almost no atmosphere. What an incredible achievement. Thank you for your post.

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    1. I didn't read that article, I'll have to look for it. Atmosphere on Mars is 1% of the atmosphere on Earth, so it's amazing that they got it off the ground. The rotors turn at 2500RPM!

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  5. This is remarkable and should give the anti-science mob pause.

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  6. It is mind blowing Shammi. Amazing to think that 150 years ago, the thought of hundreds of people sitting together on a plane and flying would have been unimaginable.. now here we are!

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    1. And just over 50 years ago, men walked on the moon for the first time.

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  7. Truly amazing!!
    I can hardly wrap my mind around this remarkable achievement.
    Sue

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    1. I'm still amazed that men have walked on the moon! When I was little, it was all a fantasy. Could never happen.

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  8. Incredible what humans can do.

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    1. Yes indeed. Difficult to believe that the engineers were able to "see" the helicopter lift off the surface of Mars from 178 million miles away.

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  9. I watched the Ingenuity on our TV news yesterday, and found it an incredible feat. The human mind can design the most amazing things when the desire is there.

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    1. I think it is human nature to explore new environments.

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  10. “Ingenuity”just fits to that robotic helicopter. What a dazzling capability of humankind! On the other hand, we must not forget about humans incapability in various respect.

    Yoko

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    1. More amazing discoveries to come. Today it was announced that the equipment on Perseverance has refined pure oxygen from the Mars atmosphere of carbon dioxide.

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  11. Unbelievable — I, too, marvel at this scientific accomplishment.

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    1. The tiny helicopter will be making more forays into the Martian atmosphere in the future. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

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