First Flight On Mars

On April 19, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter became the first aircraft to fly on another planet.

Our most recent package details the historic first flight of the 4-lb. robotic rotorcraft, which lasted 39.1 seconds, and its follow-up venture on April 22, and looks ahead to its future test program. The technology lays the groundwork for aerial exploration of Mars, an aeronautical feat given the air density of Mars is less than 1% of the density on Earth. See below for more.

“How do we use aerial mobility in the future on Mars, to help not just robotic exploration, but to help human exploration?”
Ellen Stofan
Smithsonian
Apr 24, 2013
In 1960, the United States propelled two six-inch-long television cameras into space on a satellite called TIROS 1. Rotating slowly above Earth, the satellite beamed back still images from two-watt transmitters
Apr 24, 2013
When Robert Curbeam was a kid, he spent hours designing airplanes and rockets: sketching out the fins, coloring in the flames and pondering the sweep of each hand-drawn wing
Apr 22, 2013
Charter offers free satellite imagery to aid disaster relief
Apr 22, 2013
What do you think? Where can we do better?
Apr 22, 2013
Metamaterials technology is an emerging field based on the development of tiny, man-made structures that at certain frequencies exhibit acoustic, electromagnetic or optical properties not found in nature.
Apr 22, 2013
As he was recently discussing the pivot of U.S. strategic emphasis to the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter repeated an assertion that the U.S. spends more on defense “than the next 16 largest militaries combined.” While Carter's talking point is more or less technically correct, such a comparison does not indicate what an appropriate level of spending should be. A more useful way to think about U.S.
Apr 22, 2013
German space chief worries ISS is underutilized
Apr 22, 2013
Kymeta uses metamaterial technology in new ultra-thin satellite broadband receiver