The flight zone has been chosen !

In this illustration, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter stands on the Red Planet’s surface as NASA’s Perseverance rover (partially visible on the left) rolls away. Ingenuity arrived at Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full Image Details

Members of the projects will lay out the steps necessary before the helicopter attempts its historic test flights.

NASA will hold a virtual media briefing at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT) Tuesday, March 23, to discuss upcoming activities for the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The teams operating Ingenuity and NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover have chosen the flight zone where the helicopter will attempt the first powered, controlled flights on another planet.

The briefing will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website and will livestream on multiple agency social media platforms, including the YouTube and Facebook channels for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Briefing participants include:

Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters

Bobby Braun, director for planetary science, JPL

J. (Bob) Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer, JPL

Håvard Grip, Ingenuity chief pilot, JPL

Farah Alibay, Perseverance integration lead for Ingenuity, JPL