WASHINGTON, April 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA is
targeting no earlier than Monday, April
19, for the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at
approximately 3:30 a.m. EDT
(12:30 a.m. PDT).
Data from the first flight will return to Earth a few hours
following the autonomous flight. A livestream will begin at
6:15 a.m. EDT (3:15 a.m. PDT), as the helicopter team prepares
to receive the data downlink in the Space Flight Operations
Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Watch on NASA
Television, the agency app, website, and social media
platforms, including YouTube and Facebook.
If the flight takes place April
19, a postflight briefing will be held at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m.
PDT).
The participants are:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate
administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate
- Michael Watkins, JPL
director
- MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars
Helicopter project manager at JPL
- Bob Balaram, Ingenuity Mars
Helicopter chief engineer at JPL
- HÃ¥vard Grip, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter chief pilot at JPL
- Justin Maki, Perseverance Mars
rover imaging scientist and deputy principal investigator of
Mastcam-Z instrument at JPL
Members of the media who wish to participate in the briefing by
telephone must provide their name and affiliation to Rexana Vizza at
rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov by 12 p.m. EDT (9 a.m. PDT) April
19. Due to operational schedules, limited interview
opportunities will be available to media before the Monday flight.
To request an interview, go to:
https://bit.ly/mars-landing-media
The public and media also may ask questions on social media
during the livestream and briefing using #MarsHelicopter.
Find the latest schedule updates at:
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Watch-Online
The original flight date of April
11 shifted as engineers worked on preflight checks and a
solution to a command sequence issue. The Perseverance
rover will provide support during flight operations, taking images,
collecting environmental data, and hosting the base station that
enables the helicopter to communicate with mission controllers on
Earth.
This technology demonstration is supported by NASA's Science,
Aeronautics Research, and Space Technology mission directorates.
JPL, managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages
operations for Ingenuity and the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
Follow Ingenuity via the @NASA, @NASAJPL, and
@NASAMars Twitter accounts; NASA and
NASAPersevere Facebook accounts; and NASA Instagram
account.
An Ingenuity press kit is available at:
https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit
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SOURCE NASA