NASA's Ingenuity helicopter prepares for its first flight

Ingenuity, a small robotic helicopter currently attached to NASA's Perseverance rover, will attempt the first powered flight on another planet in just over a week. The 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft is attached to the belly of Perseverance, which touched down on Mars on February 18. Ingenuity is now'uncocooned' from its carbon-fibre shield that acted as a protective casing during landing, and is set for deployment from April 8, NASA says. Before it can track the first flight of an aircraft on the Red Planet, Perseverance needs to'drop off' Ingenuity in a clear, safe area that will become the first Martian helipad. Ingenuity carries a small amount of fabric that covered one of the wings of the Wright brothers' aircraft, known as the Flyer, during the first powered, controlled flight on Earth in 1903. A handout photo made available by NASA shows an image of NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter attached to NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. This image was acquired using the SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm, on Sol 37, the twentieth Martian day of the mission, March 28, 2021.