On Tuesday night, NASA successfully flew a tiny helicopter on Mars.

It’s the first powered flight on another planet.

Australia’s Astronomer at Large with the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Fred Watson, told Neil Mitchell it’s a big deal.

“This is completely different from flying a drone on earth where you have a human controlling the machine,” he said.

“With Mars you don’t have that option… you have a delay.

“The helicopter has to be autonomous … all the parameters have to be fed in by basically artifical intelligence.

“That is the big step forward here.”

Press PLAY to hear more about the break through and what it means for the future on Mars.