NASA helicopter took a piece of the Wright Brothers’ plane to Mars – CNET [CNET]

NASA has traced the lineage of its innovative Ingenuity Mars helicopter all the way back to the historic first flight Orville and Wilbur Wright undertook at Kitty Hawk in 1903. A tiny piece of fabric from the famous Wright aircraft is now in residence on the red planet, tucked under Ingenuity’s solar panel.

In a NASA briefing on Tuesday, Ingenuity chief engineer Bob Balaram revealed the surprise package, which he described as being the size of a postage stamp. The unbleached muslin material, which comes from a wing covering, draws a connection between the first powered, controlled flight on Earth and what NASA hopes will be the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Ingenuity could take off as soon as April 8, but first it has to be delivered to its Martian airfield location by the Perseverance rover. It’ll also go through an extensive series of checks before it attempts to take off and hover about 10 feet (3 meters) above the planet’s surface.

The Perseverance rover is a couple of days away from the helicopter drop-off spot, a relatively flat and clear area in the Jezero Crater. Once Ingenuity is unfolded and set down on the ground, the rover will carefully move away to make sure the rotorcraft’s solar panel can work to power its batteries and keep it warm through the cold night.  

The rotorcraft’s mission is scheduled to last 31 Earth days, but the first night may be the most critical. “While getting deployed to the surface will be a big challenge, surviving that first night on Mars alone, without the rover protecting it and keeping it powered, will be an even bigger one,” said Balaram.

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