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• NASA says Ingenuity will soon take its first flight, but not before April 8
• Perseverance is heading to the first airfield on another planet to drop the copter 
• It will take six sols to shift Ingenuity's position in the belly of Perseverance 
• Ingenuity will fly 9ft above the surface and hover for 30 seconds for the flight 
• NASA is comparing this flight to that of the Wright Brothers on Earth 
•  NASA's Perseverance is gearing up to release the Ingenuity helicopter that will conduct the first controlled flights on another planet.

• Ingenuity is currently in the belly of the rover that is traveling to an 'airfield' on Mars, which is deemed the perfect take-off site – a flat area with textured features to help the helicopter track its path.

  The deployment of Ingenuity from the belly of Perseverance will take about six sols to complete and from there the rotocopter will have to meet a series of milestones before attempting its first flight.NASA is targeting no earlier than April 8 for this event, which will see Ingenuity fly nine feet into the air, hover in place for 30 seconds and then land again on Mars' surface.

  And the team says if the helicopter can pull off the short flight, the entire mission will be deemed a success.

  If the rotorcraft lands successfully and remains operable, up to four more flights could be attempted, each one building on the success of the last. 

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  NASA's Perseverance is gearing up to release the Ingenuity helicopter that will conduct the first controlled flights on another planet

  NASA held a briefing Tuesday to reveal details of the first flight on another planet, which the team likens to that of the Wright Brothers first flight on Earth.

  Farah Alibay, Mars Helicopter integration lead for the Perseverance rover, said: 'Most of all I think of it [Ingenuity] as an experimental aircraft and this started with the Wright Brothers who brought aerial mobility to travel here on earth in the same way we are hoping ingenuity on Mars.'Alibay also highlighted that a piece of fabric used by the Wright Brothers to construct the first airplane was attached to Ingenuity before launching to Mars.

  Perseverance is currently trekking to the first airfield on another planet, which is a 33-by-33-foot piece of Martian real estate, and once it reaches the targeted area, the rover will release the four-pound rotorcraft from its belly.

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  NASA is targeting no earlier than April 8 for this event, which will see Ingenuity fly nine feet into the air, hover in place for 30 seconds and then land again on Mars' surface

  

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  The rover is currently traveling to an 'airfield' on Mars that the American space agency has deemed the perfect take-off site – a flat area with textured features to help the helicopter track its path.

  However, NASA says the process is easier said than done.

  NASA's Ingenuity helicopter preps for its 'Wright brothers moment' 

  NASA is set to fly where no one has flown before – Mars' atmosphere.

  Named Ingenuity, the craft will fly at an altitude that is similar to 100,000 feet on Earth, allowing it to gather geology data in areas the rover can't reach.

  NASA is comparing this mission 'to the Wright brothers moment,' as it will be the first time in history an aerial vehicle has flown on another world. 

  It will first spend up to 60 days charging strapped to the Perseverance rover, before being released.

  If it survives the hard -90C Martian night, NASA will make the first flight attempt within 30 days. 

  'Since the Wright brothers first took to the skies of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, December 17, 1903, first flights have been important milestones in the life of any vehicle designed for air travel,' NASA said in a statementIt will take about six sols, or six days and four hours Earth time, before the two separate, which involves the rover team working with Ingenuity's operators to get the copter from a horizontal position to a vertical one before releasing it to the ground.

  For the first step, the team on Earth will activate a bolt-breaking device, releasing a locking mechanism that helped hold the helicopter firmly against the rover's belly during launch and Mars landing.

  The following sol, they will fire a cable-cutting pyrotechnic device, enabling the mechanized arm that holds Ingenuity to begin rotating the helicopter out of its horizontal position.

  This is also when the rotorcraft will extend two of its four landing legs.

  On the third sol, a small electric motor will take over to complete Ingenuity's rotation, which will be followed by the two landing legs snapping into position on the fourth sol.

  During this time, the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) imager will take confirmation shots of Ingenuity as it incrementally unfolds into its flight configuration and will transmit the data back to Earth.

  The helicopter will hang about five inches above the surface at its final position and only be connected to Perseverance through a singly bolt and a few dozen electrical contacts.

  On the fifth sol of deployment, the team will use the final opportunity to utilize Perseverance as a power source and charge Ingenuity's six battery cells.

  Bob Balaram, Mars Helicopter chief engineer at JPL, said: 'Once we cut the cord with Perseverance and drop those final five inches to the surface, we want to have our big friend drive away as quickly as possible so we can get the Sun's rays on our solar panel and begin recharging our batteries.' 

  

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  A  piece of fabric used by the Wright Brothers to construct the first airplane was attached to Ingenuity before launching to Mars, as NASA likens  the first flight on another world to that of the first on Earth