Joe: Today, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter achieved liftoff -- becoming the first aircraft to fly on a

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21


President Biden
@POTUS

United States government official
Today, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter achieved liftoff — becoming the first aircraft to fly on another planet. NASA proved once again that with relentless determination and the power of America’s best minds, anything is possible.

[Make7]

1. First human aircraft... ( n/t )

[Rustyeye77]

2. If you think about it, it's really amazing.

I read the temp goes down to minus 200 degrees at nite.

[WarGamer]

4. Extreme cold is easy to engineer for/against in the absence of moisture.

[Rustyeye77]

5. Beside flying, is the helicopter going to do anything ?

[WarGamer]

6. IDK, it's soooo damn cool though...

[NYC Liberal]

10. I believe this is just to allow them to learn about flying on Mars.

There are lots of possibilities if we're able to fly around instead of just having a rover driving around on the ground.

[WarGamer]

3. awesome...

I'm just hoping that I live to see a manned Mars mission... Hopefully I've got 25-35 year left so I'm optimistic. OK, on the pessimistic side, maybe 15-20 years lol...

[Leith]

7. I have a question

This will probably expose my ignorance of how helicopters and drones work, but hey! it's a chance to learn.

The Martian atmosphere is about 1% as dense as that of Earth's (I just looked it up). If the spinning blades lift the helicopter or drone by pushing air downward, how does so little air on Mars generate enough downdraft to lift the drone?

Thanks in advance.

[politruk]

9. I think it's because Ingenuity is so small.

Hardly weighs anything in Martian gravity.

[soothsayer]

13. Super light plus less gravity there, and blades at 2500 rpm instead of 400

[Lucinda]

8. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. I missed having a real POTUS who cares about people

[Buns_of_Fire]

12. And then there were two drones, and then four, and pretty soon

they're all running into each other and peeking into each other's windows, and Marvin gets pissed and breaks out the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator...