Yes we can Fly,... on Mars

Once a upon time there were some airspace pioneers,

Leonardo with "Vite aerea" (1489), Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896), Clément Ader with Éole (1890 October 09) , Wright brothers with Flyer (1903 December 17), Forlanini with Elicottero Sperimentale di Enrico Forlanini (1877 July), Étienne Oehmichen with Œhmichen no 2 (1924 April 14???, 1924 May 4???).

After these, some brave humans pushed the limits,

Hans von Ohain & Frank Whittle for the jet engines, Chuck Yeager the fastest man (First time sound barrier breaker 1947 October 14), Kittinger the space-jump (1960 August 16), Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин first man in space (Yuri Gagarin, 1961 April 12), the Apollo 11 Team with the first moon walk (1969 July 20), Patrick de Gayardon with the wing-suite (1994), Jet Man - Yves Rossy with wing-pack (crossing The Channel, 2008 September 26)...

Today we have a new first time, an historical moment, and sad to note unmanned:

First image of the robot in flight
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

First video of the robot in flight (@ t= 40min41sec)
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Screenshot of the streaming YouTube, telemetry.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

First flight from Perseverance rover arm camera
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Another small step for "a robot" but a giant leap for mankind.

Ingenuity carries a piece of fabric from the wing of the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Wright Brothers' airplane, but probably it would have been better a piece from Forlanin's experiment, as it's a helicopter.

The two experiments, yes Ingenuity it's a technological demonstrator like was Forlanin's machine, are quite similar.

Ingenuity:

Mass = 1.8[kg] (not speaking of weight, because is connected to the gravity of the planet)
Lifting System = Coaxial double symmetrical disk with 2 blades each, composite material (Carbon)
Diameter rotor D = 1.2[m] (x2 as coaxial rotors)
Engine: electric
Power P = 350[W]
Battery: six Sony Li-ion cells + Solar Panel
Energy E = 130–140 [kJ] (about 90[s]
Payload: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with a Linux operating system; Garmin LIDAR Lite v3 laser altimeter;
Communications: radio link low-power Zigbee communication protocols, via 900 [MHz] SiFlex 02 chipsets data at 250[kbit/s] over distances of up to 1,000[m]

Elicottero Sperimentale di Enrico Forlanini:

Mass = 4.5[kg] (not specified if included the mass of steam)
Lifting System = Coaxial double asymmetrical disks with 2 blades each, composite material (Silk and Bamboo)
Diameter rotor D = 1.98[m] (x2 as coaxial rotors)
Engine: double steam pistons
Power P = 184[W]
Battery: double spheric steam tank at p=1'418'550[Pa]
Energy E = 3.68 [kJ] (about t=14[s])
Payload: none
Communication: none

Ingenuity has born around the 2014, but the idea to fly on Mars is not new, in particular I'm referring to the EUROAVIA Design Workshop 2006, where after the selection of the 25 best students of the Design Contest (a contest open to all students of the world, you don't needed to be airspace student) for 3 weeks challenged each others and the topic of the DeWo: Martian aerial vehicle - Higher resolution than from an orbiter and a greater range than a rover

One of my best school-friend participated at the DeCo with a Airship, but he didn't passed the cut.

Here I report the final analysis from the jury about the DeWo solutions:

Although there were initially plenty of different thinking-outside-of-the-box design proposals on the table, the participants of the three week long design workshop opted for a more conventional aircraft design, which was found to be the most reliable and feasible. Balloons were ruled out because of lack of control over the flight path, gliders because of insufficient mission duration, rotorcrafts because of stability issues and air ships because of a not sufficient payload capacity. However, here the similarities come to an end; the resulting aircraft designs were notably different to each other.

It's clear that the DeWo target was different from Ingenuity, but it's interesting the different approach and how the world is changed in a decade and half (YouTube was just born in 2005, no iPhones...).

It's really a pity that after the last DeWo in Rolls Royce 2007, when I had the chance to be selected and participate, the fire of the European students (and Faculty and Factories) has gone out, and that is remain the last one!!!

EA-DeWo were incredible events for students before the work-life, the challenges, the skills, the human relationships, the international relationship are just some features of it and the basement for ha better peaceful world/mankind!! maybe it's time to restart!!!

Back to the nowadays event, In my opinion this first flight on Mars brings:

We can Fly!!! the theory is one thing and the practice is another...;
It's possible to make interplanetary mission with small budget, but more importantly with "Standard and Commercial" parts (micro-satellites are the example), and this is a feature mostly unknown outside the engineering, production! (N.B.:ok the Ingenuity program is not cheap but for NASA habit, yes: NASA has invested about US$80 million to build Ingenuity and about US$5 million to operate the helicopter, cit. Wikipedia, for Galileo EU sat-nav system, that is not a breaking technology, costs some 4-10 €billions, yes billions; A380 price tag US$445,6 million). Look to VirginGalactic, SpaceX and BlueOrigin, they are "winning" not because they are old technology but because the are standard and "commercial";
The configuration of the coaxial rotors probably will kick-out finally the multi-rotors (more than 2, ref. quad-copter) configurations of all terrestrial drones (aerotaxi included, as I say "helicopters designers are not idiot, if they continue to build conventional rotors config."); this layout, used by Kamov (Камов) for decades, is giving a lot of vantages as stability, as volumes, as speeds, as handling (see Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant);
It's opening new doors to explore Mars and others planets with atmosphere, not only faster and longer range reconnaissance, but maybe also alternative re-entry solutions;
Unfortunately it's again a Robot, not a human!!! If is cool the human capability to create "software" so autonomous, I want to see humans ride a rocket and land around, explore it's part of mankind, we cannot stop it; we already did once, do it another time!!!
It's important that this achievement will inspire new generation like my small nephews, at theirs age I was watching the Space Shuttle, and we have a Space Station now!

These are just a preliminary thoughts, So it's time: Поехали!!! (We Go!!!)

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