6 days until @NASAPersevere lands on Mars!

In celebration, everyday until landing day I'll post an interesting aspect about the mission for you all to learn about, and today is day two! So, let's talk about Ingenuity, Perseverance's partner in crime. (1/6) #scicomm

Ingenuity is making history as the first helicopter to fly on another celestial body, piloted by engineers @NASAJPL! But how exactly will it do this, and what will Ingenuity actually look for during its times on the red planet? (2/6)

So Ingenuity's goals is to understand whether its type of technology can work on Mars.

What's the difference between flight here on Earth and on Mars? It all comes down to the atmosphere. Mars' atmosphere is extremely thin, which is almost 99% less dense than Earth's. (3/6)

Because of this, Ingenuity has to be really light in order to generate enough lift. It's only about 4 pounds!

It has coaxial rotors, and in order to navigate, it'll use a solar tracker since the lack of a global magnetic field on Mars makes a compass useless. (4/6)

The innovation Ingenuity will bring during its 30-day test window is the visuals it'll be able to provide and the distance it will go. It will be able to provide more detailed images of Mars compared to Perseverance and overhead satellites, and during each flight...(5/6)

...it'll work up to going as far as 300 meters in a span on 90 seconds. If it works, Ingenuity will only be the beginning of the aerial power we'll be able to have on Mars! (6/6)

Q: How excited are you for Ingenuity's first flight?