Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2021

4 MAY-JUNE 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING Flight by humans has a long history here on Earth. A cave painting on Muna Island in Indonesia that dates back to at least 9,000 B.C. depicts a kaghati , a kite whose design is still in use today by the island commu- nities. Human flight also has a long, if sporadic, history, with recorded human flight by attachment to a kite dating back nearly two millen- nia in China, and a first human lift by hot air balloon recorded on Octo- ber 19 th , 1783 in Paris. The leap from Ingenuity’s first flight F or 39 seconds this past April 19 th , the Mars 2020 mission’s In- genuity helicopter performed the first demonstration of con- trolled, powered flight on another planet, including a 30-second hover three meters above where the Per- severance rover had deployed it on April 3 rd . This first demonstration, recorded by both Ingenuity and Per- severance, is the first step in dra- matically changing how we explore the red planet and beyond. by Damian G. Allis NASA Solar System Ambassador I n the background, a frame of the first video of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter in flight. [NASA/JPL- Caltech/ASU/MSSS] simple flight to controlled, powered flight began on December 17, 1903 outside of Kitty Hawk, North Car- olina, with the 12-second flight of the Wright Flyer by Orville Wright. With this first demonstration, and additional flights by both Orville and Wilbur Wright, the force of