Get ready for NASA Mars helicopter’s first flight

Before heading off to search for signs of long ago Martian microbes, NASA’s Perseverance rover will first undertake what may be the most technologically exciting part of its mission: flying a helicopter.

Packed under the belly of Perseverance, a car-size robotic vehicle that landed on Mars last month, is Ingenuity, a 4-pound minihelicopter intended to demonstrate that flying on another planet is possible.

NASA officials announced on Tuesday that they had selected the site for this demonstration of extraterrestrial hovering — just north of where it landed.

The rover is driving to that location, where it will carefully drop off Ingenuity and then back away to observe the flights.