The first flight on another world

A four-pound helicopter rose three metres above Mars, hovered for thirty-nine seconds, and landed, carrying a postage-stamp piece of the Wright Flyer's wing.

The air at the surface of Mars is about one per cent of Earth's, which is roughly what you would find at 30 kilometres up here — well above anything that has ever flown. It was meant to make five flights as a demonstration and made seventy-two.