How NASA's Mars Helicopter Will Reach the Red Planet's Surface (6 minute read)
The Mars Helicopter Delivery System was created to help NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter safely navigate the final five inches from the Perseverance rover to the surface of Mars. Ingenuity weighs about four pounds and is packed with technology that makes stowing and deploying it a challenge, especially since powered controlled flight on Mars has never been attempted. Mission engineers decided to store the helicopter in Perseverance's belly. Two months after Perseverance lands, the rover will drop the Mars Helicopter Delivery System onto a suitable location, and six days later, the deployment process will begin. Once a good drop is confirmed, the helicopter will begin recharging its batteries with its solar panel, and then the flight test program will begin. If the technology is successful, the helicopters might be used in future missions to act as scouts, carry payloads, or investigate the environment.
Italy begins the first floating wind power plant in the Mediterranean (3 minute read)
The 7Seas Med project aims to build a floating wind farm in the Mediterranean Sea. Located 35 kilometers off the coast of Marsala, the 25 floating wind turbines constructed in the next 25 to 30 years will produce up to ten megawatts of power each. Italy needs to develop 9,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 to reach the European Union's goals. Floating turbines can be moved when needed, but it is unlikely to be necessary in this case due to the chosen location. The project will start construction in 2023 and will begin to produce energy in the following year.