NASA is about to fly a helicopter on Mars for the first time ever, and you can learn more about the upcoming effort during a webcast event tonight (March 11) at 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT on March 12).
“Helicopters in Space” is the latest entry in the von Kármán Lecture Series, which is organized by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. JPL manages the Perseverance rover‘s Mars 2020 mission, which includes a pioneering helicopter named Ingenuity.
“Helicopters in Space” will discuss Perseverance and Ingenuity, which is expected to get off the ground sometime this spring. The speakers are Mars 2020 systems engineer Farah Alibay and Mars Helicopter operations lead Timothy Canham, both of JPL.
“How do you fly a helicopter on Mars? It takes Ingenuity and Perseverance. During this technology demo, Farah Alibay and Tim Canham will get into the details of how these craft will manage this incredible task,” JPL officials wrote in a description of the event.
You can watch “Helicopters in Space” in the window above, courtesy of JPL, or directly via JPL.
‘ISS Live!’ Tune in to the space station
Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the “ISS Live” broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.
From NASA:
“Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will see a blue screen.
“Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.”
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