It’s hard to imagine that a flight lasting a mere 39 seconds could represent monumental scientific achievement, but that was the reaction — and celebration — last week when the experimental helicopter known as Ingenuity lifted off the surface of Mars.
In yet another milestone for the NASA space program, the helicopter achieved what a team of engineers and scientists had spent six years working on: the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.
NASA officials hailed it as the space equivalent of a “Wright brothers moment” and for good reason. The ability to use powered helicopters — or perhaps drones in the future — to explore a planet’s surface would be an invaluable aid in examining difficult or dangerous places, or to serve as a scout for the day when astronauts arrive.