This is how to watch the first powered flight on Mars

Jon Lawson
A snap of Ingenuity on the Martian surface taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

NASA is planning to try its first test flight of Ingenuity on Sunday April 11th and if all goes to plan it will be live streamed here at around 3:30am EDT (8.30am BST). If it flies as expected, the live stream will also show the helicopter team analysing the flight data in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, beginning at around 3:30am EDT on Monday, April 12. A post-flight briefing is expected to take place later the same day at 11 am.

Ingenuity arrived at the Jezero Crater on February 18, attached to the Perseverance rover. The helicopter is a technology demonstrator with a planned flight duration of up to 31 days (30 Mars days, or sols).

The agency is hoping future missions will routinely use powered flight to move supplies around and assist with tasks like surveying. 

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