The landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars was not just a victory for science, but also for open source software, the team behind the project has revealed.

In its bid to use software that was “safe and proven”, NASA turned to Linux and open source. “This the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars,” said Tim Canham, Mars Helicopter Operations Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in a discussion with IEEE Spectrum.

Without going into too much detail, Canham mentioned that the flight software framework NASA is using on the tiny helicopter dubbed Ingenuity, that’s tucked under the Perseverance Mars rover, was originally developed for miniature satellites called CubeSats.

Yesterday, NASA landed a rover named Perseverance on Mars. I, along with 2 million other people, watched the landing happen live on YouTube. It was beautiful. I mean, here’s this little robot dude that’s traveled millions and millions of miles through the barrenness of space, and now it’s just hanging out on Mars taking pics and scientific samples! (Perseverance joins older sibling Curiosity on the surface of the Red Planet. Hope they have a nice time together!)

In any case, Perseverance didn’t traverse the vastness of space alone. Ingenuity, a tiny helicopter, tagged along for the ride. As it’s primarily a technology demonstration, Ingenuity’s destiny is to attempt the first powered flight on any planet other than Earth and to hopefully be the blueprint for future Mars missions. It’s also running on Linux.

Perseverance hit Mars' atmosphere at almost 12,000 miles per hour (19,312 kilometers per hour) and a mere seven minutes later NASA landed its latest Mars rover softly and safely. Onboard the one-ton mobile science lab is its tiny flying companion, the drone helicopter Ingenuity. If all goes well, the four-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity will be the first vehicle to ever fly on another world. At 11-light minutes from Earth, no one will fly the dual-propped Ingenuity with a drone controller. Instead, it will fly itself using a combination of Linux and a NASA-built program based on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) open-source F´ (pronounced F prime) framework.

When NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars this week, it also brought the Linux operating system to the Red Planet.

The tidbit was mentioned in an interview NASA software engineer Tim Canham gave to IEEE Spectrum. The helicopter-like drone on board the Perseverance rover uses a Linux-powered software framework the space agency open-sourced a few years ago. “This the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars. We’re actually running on a Linux operating system,” Canham said.

It also might be the first time NASA has brought a Linux-based device to Mars. “There isn’t a previous use of Linux that I’m aware of, definitely on the previous rovers,” Canham told PCMag in an email.

The article also notes that the helicopter-like drone Ingenuity "was built using off-the-shelf parts, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 processor, a smartphone chip."

"Ingenuity is purely a technology demonstration," notes ZDNet. "It's not designed to support the Perseverance mission, which is searching for signs of ancient life and collecting rock and dirt samples for later missions to return to Earth. Its mission is to show that it's possible to fly on Mars using commercial off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software."

In one of humankind’s historical moments, Linux-powered Perseverance Mars Rover has made a successful landing on Mars. Its landing software is powered by Linux – and open-source software that has been touted for its safety.

Tim Canham mentioned the importance of Linux in the Perseverance Mars Rover success to Mars. In discussion with IEEE Spectrum, the Mars Helicopter Operations Lead at NASA’s Propulsion Laboratory said that “This is the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars.” He also touted how it was important for the team to use a proven and safe.

The NASA expert was also not shy away from saying that, “It’s kind of an open-source victory.”

The live telecast of the Perseverance Mars Rover making it to the land was watched by 2 million people on YouTube. The whole scene was mesmerizing and beautiful.

There was a great deal of celebration at NASA and around the world when the Perseverance rover safely landed on the surface of Mars. That historic moment, however, carries a few firsts for a lot of things, and not just for space science alone. While the rolling rover is already important in itself, its companion helicopter drone is just as significant as it is the first time NASA used the open source Linux operating system on Mars, opening up the possibilities for tech demos like it in the future.

Ingenuity, Perseverance’s flying companion, marks a couple of first things for NASA and Mars missions. It is the first aircraft to fly on Mars, for one, contending with different levels of gravity and atmospheric conditions from those of earth. It is also the first of its kind to be built from off-the-shelf parts, both hardware and software.

The Ingenuity helicopter drone runs on a box powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, an older chipset that is apparently space-worthy and newer than the boards NASA has inside its rovers. Other parts that make up the drone were also sourced from easily accessible consumer hardware.

Perseverance, sometime it will be the year of the desktop on Earth

When NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars this week, it also brought the Linux operating system to the Red Planet.

NASA software engineer Tim Canham said the helicopter-like drone on board the Perseverance rover uses a Linux-powered software framework the space agency open-sourced a few years ago.

"This the first time we'll be flying Linux on Mars. We're actually running on a Linux operating system," Canham said.

Here is your morning dose of miscellaneous Linux news. Not gaming but still very cool - Linux has officially landed on Mars with the Perseverance Rover. Before we've been able to hit that mythical year of the Linux desktop, heck before Wayland has even been able to replace X11 on Linux desktops, we have now managed to blast Linux to another planet far away.

If you're not even the slightest space nerd like me you might be a bit confused, NASA just recently landed the Perseverance Rover on the red planet. That's cool by itself but Perseverance came with a rather fancy little Helicopter named Ingenuity, which according to NASA is "the first aircraft humanity has sent to another planet to attempt powered, controlled flight".

One of the coolest parts of NASA's new rover mission is it's helicoper. Marking the first powered flight on another world. What's got me so excited about all this, though? This flying science machine is powered by LINUX!

NASA’s Perseverance landed on the surface of Mars earlier this week amid appreciation from the whole world. The achievement was monumental after all, the small rover travelled to a distant planet that can soon be the next 'home' for humans. However, it wasn’t the only man-made thing in doing so.

The now-renowned rover is accompanied by a tiny helicopter named Ingenuity, which is set to take the first ever flight on a planet other than Earth soon. Though it hasn't got a lot of coverage, but interestingly enough, the autonomous drone is powered by a Linux system.

Another day, another open-source/Linux news but this one’s special. On 30th July 2020, the Perseverance rover designed by NASA took off to Mars to learn more about the Red Planet’s secrets.

Fast forward to this day; the rover has finally landed. While this is a massive leap in space exploration, it’s also a huge win for the Linux community. That’s because something special resides under the rover’s belly. It’s called Ingenuity, a little helicopter that’ll be the first aircraft to fly on Mars.

The semi-autonomous Ingenuity drone copter that will launch soon from NASA’s Perseverance rover runs open source Linux on a Snapdragon 801 along with components from Sparkfun.

Like other NASA rovers, the Perseverance rover that successfully landed last week on Mars’ Jezero Crater runs on Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS. Yet tucked underneath the SUV-sized rover is an autonomous mini-helicopter called Ingenuity that runs Linux. The debut of Linux on Mars was revealed on Feb. 17 by Tim Canham, Mars Helicopter Operations Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in an interview with IEEE Spectrum.

just hope the #Perseverence Mars rover ain’t running Windows