Science News Roundup: NASA scores Wright Brothers moment with first helicopter flight on Mars; Amazon gets 9 ULA satellite launch vehicles for broadband internet program and more

Physical inactivity tied to higher COVID-19 risks NASA scores Wright Brothers moment with first helicopter flight on Mars NASA's miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early on Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet, the U.S. space agency said.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Physical inactivity tied to higher COVID-19 risk; new trial attempts to reinfect virus survivors

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Physical inactivity tied to higher COVID-19 risks

NASA scores Wright Brothers moment with first helicopter flight on Mars

NASA's miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early on Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet, the U.S. space agency said. The twin-rotor whirligig's debut on the Red Planet marked a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment for NASA, which said success could pave the way for new modes of exploration on Mars and other destinations in the solar system, such as Venus and Saturn's moon Titan.

Amazon gets 9 ULA satellite launch vehicles for broadband internet program

Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it had secured nine satellite launch vehicles from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to support the initial deployment of its broadband internet initiative, Project Kuiper. Atlas V launch vehicles from ULA, a joint rocket venture between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, is the first of many vehicles which will be used to deploy Amazon's satellite constellation to orbit.

Scientists in Chile discover remains of plant-eating dinosaur amid world´s driest desert

Scientists in Chile's parched Atacama desert, the world's driest, have discovered the remains of a previously unknown species of dinosaur that millions of years ago lived among lush greenery in what is now a moonscape of rock and sand.

A team led by Chilean geologist Carlos Arévalo unearthed the remains of Arackar licanantay, which means "Atacama bones" in the Kunza language, 75 kilometers south of the desert city ​​of Copiapó. The so-called titanosaur had a small head and long neck and tail, as well as an unusually flat back compared with others like it.

A rediscovered forgotten species brews promise for coffee's future

In dense tropical forests in Sierra Leone, scientists have rediscovered a coffee species not seen in the wild in decades - a plant they say may help secure the future of this valuable commodity that has been imperiled by climate change. The researchers said on Monday that the species, called Coffea stenophylla, possesses greater tolerance for higher temperatures than the Arabica coffee that makes up 56% of global production and the robusta coffee that makes up 43%. The stenophylla coffee, they added, was demonstrated to have a superior flavor, similar to Arabica.

(With inputs from agencies.)