About Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
- It is a small, autonomous aircraft. that flew to Mars aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover.
- It was sent to Mars to perform experimental flight tests to determine if powered, controlled flight at the Red Planet was possible.
- Ingenuity’s mission is experimental in nature and completely independent of the rover’s science mission.
- Ingenuity was deployed to the surface on April 4, 2021.
- On April 19, it became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.
- It rose to a height of 10 feet, hovered for 30 seconds, and then descended back to the ground.
- The flight lasted 39.1 seconds.
- It managed to fly in Mars’ thin atmosphere, which isn’t conducive for flying.
- It’s piloted by onboard guidance, navigation, and control systems running algorithms.
- Perseverance acts as a relay between the chopper and the earth.
Key Facts about Perseverance Rover
- It is a robotic explorer to land on Mars as part of NASA’s ongoing Mars 2020 Mission.
- Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.
- The rover will collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in tubes, and leave them on the planet’s surface to be returned to Earth at a future date.
- Launch: It was launched on July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- Landing: Successfully landed on the surface of Mar’s Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.
- Features:
- It is about 3 metres long, 2.7 metres wide, and 2.2 metres tall.
- It is about the size of a car but weighs only about 1,025 kilograms with all instruments on board.
- Power source: Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG).
- Converts heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity.
Q1) What is regolith?
Regolith, a region of loose unconsolidated rock and dust that sits atop a layer of bedrock. On Earth, regolith also includes soil, which is a biologically active medium and a key component in plant growth. Regolith serves as a source of other geologic resources, such as aluminum, iron, clays, diamonds, and rare earth elements.
Source: NASA Re-Establishes Contact With Ingenuity Helicopter On Mars After Outage
Last updated on July, 2025
→ UPSC Notification 2025 was released on 22nd January 2025.
→ UPSC Prelims Result 2025 is out now for the CSE held on 25 May 2025.
→ UPSC Prelims Question Paper 2025 and Unofficial Prelims Answer Key 2025 are available now.
→ UPSC Calendar 2026 is released on 15th May, 2025.
→ The UPSC Vacancy 2025 were released 1129, out of which 979 were for UPSC CSE and remaining 150 are for UPSC IFoS.
→ UPSC Mains 2025 will be conducted on 22nd August 2025.
→ UPSC Prelims 2026 will be conducted on 24th May, 2026 & UPSC Mains 2026 will be conducted on 21st August 2026.
→ The UPSC Selection Process is of 3 stages-Prelims, Mains and Interview.
→ UPSC Result 2024 is released with latest UPSC Marksheet 2024. Check Now!
→ UPSC Toppers List 2024 is released now. Shakti Dubey is UPSC AIR 1 2024 Topper.
→ Also check Best IAS Coaching in Delhi