Mars helicopter

[Old Farang]

Mars helicopter carries Wright stuff on first flight
Mars helicopter carries Wright stuff on first flight | Flight Safety Australia (https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2021/04/mars-helicopter-carries-wright-stuff-on-first-flight/)

A small piece of the first heavier than atmosphere aircraft to make a powered controlled flight on Earth will be on board the first aircraft to make a powered controlled flight on Mars. When the Ingenuity helicopter takes off on the red planet today, it will carry a swatch of cotton muslin wing cloth from the Wright brothers’ Flyer I.

Ingenuity is scheduled to take-off today at 5:30pm AEST for a 30-second hovering flight to an altitude of about 3 metres. NASA says Ingenuity is a technology demonstration – ‘a project that seeks to test a new capability for the first time, with limited scope’. The electrically-powered, unmanned coaxial rotor helicopter was carried to Mars on the six-wheeled Perseverance rover.

[Old Farang]

First Video of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight
First Video of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25828/first-video-of-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-in-flight/)

Flight

April 19, 2021
In this video captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover, the agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021.

[incisor]

utterly amazing...

how years ago was it that the wright bros were in the news....

[Old Farang]

I guess that Telstra have nothing to do with this:
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Communications with Earth
Communications with Earth | Mission – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communications/)

The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is an international network of antennas that provide the communication links between the scientists and engineers on Earth to the missions in space and on Mars.
The DSN consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the world: at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This strategic placement permits constant observation of spacecraft as the Earth rotates on its own axis.

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and here:
Communications - NASA Mars (https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communications/#:~:text=It%20generally%20takes%20about%205,(DSN)% 20antennas%20on%20Earth.)

It generally takes about 5 to 20 minutes for a radio signal to travel the distance between Mars and Earth, depending on planet positions. Using orbiters to relay messages is beneficial because they are much closer to Perseverance than the Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas on Earth. The mass- and power-constrained rover can achieve high data rates of up to 2 megabits per second on the relatively short-distance relay link to the orbiters overhead. The orbiters then use their much larger antennas and transmitters to relay that data on the long-distance link back to Earth.