IIT-Madras alumnus Bob Balaram, the man behind Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter's historic flight

Indian-origin engineer Bob Balaram is the man behind Mars Ingenuity helicopter, who has worked with Nasa for 20 years.

Nasa's ambitious miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity took flight above the dusty surface of Mars on Monday, making it the first powered flight on another planet. Significantly, Indian-origin engineer Bob Balaram is the man behind Ingenuity, who has worked with Nasa for 20 years. Ingenuity Mars helicopter is the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet. With this, Nasa marked it as a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment on Monday. Bob Balaram, who is an IIT-Madras alumnus from the 1975-80 batch, is Ingenuity's chief engineer. He studied B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering at the prestigious institute.