It didn’t seem that impressive at first. It looked like a toy drone spinning to life, rising above a rocky desert, and hovering for several seconds before settling gently back to earth.

But wait!  That’s not Earth and that wasn’t a toy.  That was NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter making the very first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021.

The solar-powered helicopter first became airborne at 3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT) – 12:33 Local Mean Solar Time (Mars time) – a time the Ingenuity team determined would have optimal energy and flight conditions. Altimeter data indicate Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds. It then descended, touching back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight.

Designing an aircraft to fly on another planet – along with the constraints of traveling millions miles through the vaccuum of space to get there – presented some unique challenges.  Ingenuity stands just under 20 inches tall and weighs less than 4 pounds.  It uses 2 sets 4-foot-wide rotor blades to achieve the needed lift to fly in the thin atmosphere of Mars.

This was first of a series of test flights Ingenuity will be making in the coming weeks. The goal of these flights is to test the technology and design of the aircraft. You can learn more and follow the progress of the remaining flights on NASA’s Mars Helicopter website.

“We have been thinking for so long about having our Wright brothers moment on Mars, and here it is,” said MiMi Aung, project manager of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL. “We will take a moment to celebrate our success and then take a cue from Orville and Wilbur regarding what to do next. History shows they got back to work – to learn as much as they could about their new aircraft – and so will we.”

Project manager MiMi Aung is a Burmese-American engineer who has worked on numerous projects during her 30-year career at NASA.  During a recent briefing, she offered this advice to girls interested in pursuing careers in space-related technology:

You can find out more about how MiMi Aung and other NASA engineers transformed their dreams into reality by participating in a Taking Flight webinar on April 29 at 1 p.m. PDT/4 p.m. EDT.