Teddy Tzanetos, team lead for NASAs Ingenuity Mars helicopter project, joined 'Chicago Tonight' to discuss how the helicopter is the first aircraft humankind has created that is capable of powered, controlled flight on another planet.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is the first aircraft humankind has ever created that is capable of powered, controlled flight on another world.
Teddy Tzanetos: So first and foremost, flying on Mars is difficult because of the environment. The air density, it’s 1% that of Earth’s. So, that means that there’s almost no air to push off of to try and fly. And that means that your vehicle therefore needs to do a couple of special things. First off, it needs to be very, very light. Ingenuity weighs just 1.8 kilos or four pounds. You need to spin your blades very, very quickly.
Tzanetos: So that was dictated by physics. It was also dictated by the style of mission that we were. We were a separate project . And we were we were a technology demonstration. That term means high risk, high reward and minimal budget. But that means your budget is not as high as a large flagship mission. So that means if we can save costs by using off-the-shelf parts we will.
With Ingenuity’s first flight, what was that experience like for you? I imagine you must have been nervous or even terrified. What combination of emotions did you go through with that first flight? Tell me a little bit about how you plan the flight, because I imagine that given you don’t have real-time control that must be something that you have to plan very carefully.
And just finally, in terms of this demonstration of technology, could it be scaled up? Do you see a future where we could have astronauts zipping around in helicopters on Mars?
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