posted 10-23-2021 12:16 PM               

Museum is First to Exhibit Full-Scale Mock-ups of NASA Mars Rover and Helicopter

Six-month display of NASA Perseverance and Ingenuity replicas opens Oct. 31

On Oct. 30, The Museum of Flight will be the first site to exhibit NASA's full-scale replicas of the agency's newest robotic explorers on Mars — the rover and helicopter, Perseverance and Ingenuity. The models are part of NASA's "Roving with Perseverance" roadshow to museums that are members of NASA's Museum and Informal Education Alliance.

The digging, scooping, roaming, flying, listening, photographing and analyzing robots have an almost "human" presence on the Red Planet, and the full-scale mock-ups will offer Museum visitors a visceral way to identify with them. The rover's lookalike is as big as a car, and its camera "head" towers over most people, while Ingenuity's diminutive double fits under Percy's belly. The exhibit runs through April 3, 2022.

Opening Day Events

The mock-ups will be displayed in the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery. On opening day there will representatives from NASA JPL (the lead NASA center for the Mars exploration missions), Mars planetarium shows, videos and family education programs. Throughout the run of the exhibition, the gallery's video wall will be updated to show the latest images from the robust rover and its flying sidekick. Future plans include speaker programs and other events related to Mars in fact and fiction.

Perseverance and Ingenuity

NASA's Mars 2020 Mission landed Perseverance and Ingenuity on the Red Planet on Feb.18, 2021. Operations on the surface of Mars are planned to last at least one Mars year (687 Earth days). Perseverance is searching for signs of ancient microbial life, and will advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars.

Ingenuity is testing the technology for powered, controlled flight on another world for the first time. Its historic maiden flight took place on April 19, 2021. Since then, the helicopter has successfully performed additional experimental flights of incrementally farther distance and greater altitude. With its tech demo complete, Ingenuity transitions to a new operations demonstration phase to explore how future rovers and aerial explorers can work together.

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

Roving with Perseverance: Mars Rover and Helicopter Models on Tour

Venues to display full-scale models:

• October 30, 2021 - April 3, 2022
  The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington

• December 1, 2021 - January 30, 2022
  National Air and Space Museum
  Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia

• February 18, 2022 - June 15, 2022
  Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York City

• February 17, 2022 - May 30, 2022
  Exploratorium, San Francisco, California

• July 1, 15, 2022 - December 15, 2022
  Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois

• June 28, 2022 - December 15, 2022
  Clark Planetarium, Salt Lake City, Utah

  Venues to display smaller-scale models:

• October 30, 2021 - March 18, 2022
  Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky, Hazard, Kentucky
  Challenger Learning Center of Northern Nevada, Reno
  Columbia Memorial Space Center, Downey, California
  Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City, New York
  Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas, Texas

• March 30, 2022 - September 15, 2022
  Discovery Science Center, Springfield, Missouri

• March 30, 2022 - September 15, 2022
  EcoExploratorio, San Juan, Puerto Rico