NASA shows how Mars helicopter did the impossible, and then crashed
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Ingenuity: NASA's remarkable Martian helicopter
When NASA added a drone named Ingenuity to its Mars 2020 rover Perseverance, it expected the tiny four-pound helicopter to fly a total of five very brief missions in the thin Martian atmosphere. But Ingenuity far surpassed all expectations, flying dozens of flights before suffering damage to its rotors in January. Correspondent David Pogue reports on how the tiny drone, created from off-the-shelf parts, continued to provide valuable data and images from the Red Planet three years into its...
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Where the little helicopter on Mars fits in the history of aviation
Mars is a graveyard for explorers. Many orbiters, landers, rovers, and other mechanical critters that have either been cremated in the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere or fallen silent in the ochre, radiation-smothered sands below, right away or at the end of their technological lifespans. Many belonged to NASA, and the mantra of their droids seems to be: If you’re going to die, you might overachieve before you go. These robots—the ones that survived their interplanetary journey and arrival...
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Why is Methane Seeping on Mars? NASA Scientists Have New Ideas
The most surprising revelation from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover — that methane is seeping from the surface of Gale Crater — has scientists scratching their heads. Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven’t found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn’t expect to find methane