Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 March 2

                  Ingenuity: A Mini-Helicopter Now on Mars
      Illustration Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Mars 2020 - Perseverance

   Explanation: What if you could fly around Mars? NASA may have achieved
   that capability last month with the landing of Perseverance, a rover
   which included a small flight-worthy companion called Ingenuity,
   nicknamed Ginny. Even though Ginny is small -- a toaster-sized
   helicopter with four long legs and two even-longer (1.2-meter) rotors,
   she is the first of her kind -- there has never been anything like her
   before. After being deployed, possibly in April, the car-sized
   Perseverance ("Percy") will back away to give Ginny ample room to
   attempt her unprecedented first flight. In the featured artistic
   illustration, Ginny's long rotors are depicted giving her the lift she
   needs to fly into the thin Martian atmosphere and explore the area near
   Perseverance. Although Ingenuity herself will not fly very far, she is
   a prototype for all future airborne Solar-System robots that may fly
   far across not only Mars, but Titan.

                     Tomorrow's picture: erupting earth
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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