Posted on 01/26/2024 9:32:37 AM PST by Ezekiel
Pieces of humanity’s first powered aircraft have orbited Earth, ventured to the Moon, and now, they’ve hovered above Mars’ surface.
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Mars, the solar system’s fourth planet, is a cold, craggy, two-mooned world named for the Roman God of war, which is fitting considering its rusty red surface gives it a blood-stained hue. Located some 293 million miles from Earth, Mars — with its thin atmosphere, colossal canyons, and towering Olympus Mons volcano — has long mystified humanity. But today, April 19, 2021, a powerful yet petite helicopter briefly hovered above the Red Planet’s surface, taking what could be a paradigm-shifting step toward unfurling the mysteries of Mars.
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To honor the first airplane to fly on Earth, Ingenuity’s team fastened a small swatch of fabric from the original 1903 Wright Flyer to the underside of the helicopter’s solar panel. And on April 19, 2021, three days after Wilbur Wright’s 154th birthday, that relic of humanity’s first airplane lifted off from Mars.
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But where did the fabric from the original Wright Flyer come from? And how did it ultimately make its way to Mars? That’s a story all its own.
From Dayton, Ohio, to Jezero Crater, Mars
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After retrieving the parts of the 1905 Flyer components he required, Orville helped restore the plane for Carillon Park. He also helped design Wright Hall, the building where the plane is still on display today. But after the project was completed, he was left with a number of additional ungifted pieces of 1903 Wright Flyer ephemera.
Perhaps, one day, someone would find a use for them.
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The Wright Flyer ventures to space
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In July 1969, Armstrong carried a small piece of wood and a swatch of fabric from the original Wright Flyer aboard Apollo 11, the mission that saw humanity walk on the Moon for the very first time...
(Excerpt) Read more at astronomy.com ...
How to repurpose little scraps of fabric.
“This is a Wright brothers moment,” says Amanda Wright Lane, the Wright brothers’ great-grandniece. “When I first thought about the name of the rover, Perseverance, and the name of the little helicopter, Ingenuity, all I could think about was Uncle Orv and Uncle Wil. I thought, ‘Isn’t it appropriate that, in some way, they are a part of this mission?’ They’ve always been a part of those ideas — perseverance, ingenuity. Always.”
Just think, sometime in the future Alien explorers will find it and puzzle over the bit of fabric...
But, what does it Doooo?
not even close
Ezekiel, since it is you, my FRiend:
I once had the pleasure of working with a young Russian man.
He and I got on the subject, at some point, of the Wright brothers.
He laughed and spoke of “American Propaganda.”
The Russians have their own first fliers, you see.
There is an entirely different story of the first men to fly!
Mars and Earth are farthest apart when they are both at aphelion and on opposite sides of the sun. Here, they can be 250 million miles (401 million km) apart according to the New York Times. The average distance between Earth and Mars is 140 million miles (225 million km).
https://www.space.com/16875-how-far-away-is-mars.html
“293 million miles from Earth”
Maybe they were thinking about taking a round trip? 🤠
Cool! Thanks for digging this up!
Celebrity ashes lost to oblivion in failed rocket launch
They can’t even launch dead people without screwing it up
“There is an entirely different story of the first men to fly!”
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4212828/posts?page=34#34
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