NASA said it expects to fly the first mini helicopter on Mars early next month, BBC reported Wednesday.
The four-pound chopper named Ingenuity was transported to the Red Planet by the Perseverance rover, which successfully landed in Jezero Crater just over a month ago.
Ingenuity will attempt to make the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, demonstrating a new technology that could unlock access to never-before reached areas of other celestial bodies in the coming years.
"When NASA's Sojourner rover landed on Mars in 1997, it proved that roving the Red Planet was possible and completely redefined our approach to how we explore Mars," CNN quoted NASA Planetary Science Division director Lori Glaze said in a statement.
Perseverance is currently on its way to the 33-by-33-foot "airfield" where Ingenuity will attempt a series of short hops in Mars' rarefied air.
The rover is in the middle of a days-long drive to the flight zone, which is almost 200 feet away from where it landed. The chopper's deployment process will take about six Martian days, or sols.
Over the weekend, Perseverance released the debris shield that protected the helicopter during the rover's seven-month journey through deep space and an intense seven-minute landing sequence through Mars' atmosphere.
Once deployed, the tiny rotorcraft -- which remains attached to the belly of the rover -- will have 30 sols (31 Earth days) to conduct its test flight operation.
The landing site needed to be flat and free of any large obstacles that could threaten Ingenuity's flight demos, the helicopter's chief pilot, Håvard Grip, said.
If successful, the flight would represent something of a "Wright Brothers moment", according to NASA.
"As with everything with the helicopter, this type of deployment has never been done before," NASA engineer Farah Alibay said in remarks quoted by BBC News.
No helicopter has ever flown on a planet beyond Earth. NASA hopes Ingenuity changes that, and in a big way.
