NASA’s Ingenuity mission ends after Mars helicopter sustains damage
NASA’s groundbreaking Mars helicopter dubbed Ingenuity has flown for the last time.
The innovative piece of machinery landed on the Red Planet alongside the Perseverance Rover on Feb. 18, 2021.
Over its three years on the Martian surface, the helicopter performed 72 flights, flying more than 14 times farther and logging two more hours of total flight time than NASA had ever planned.
But during its most recent excursion, the craft sustained irreparable damage to at least one of its rotor blades and is no longer capable of flight.
“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best – make the impossible, possible.”
Nelson said Ingenuity and other missions like it continue to pave the way for future flights, human exploration and better understanding of our solar system.
The helicopter had its first successful flight on April 19, 2021. It was the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet, NASA said.
After several more successful takeoffs, it began a new mission as an “aerial scout” for Perseverance scientist and rover drivers.
Last Tuesday, the helicopter launched again for a short vertical flight to help NASA determine its location following a previous emergency landing. It achieved a maximum altitude of 40 feet and hovered for less than five seconds before beginning its descent. But on its way down, Ingenuity lost contact with Perseverance, which serves as the communication relay for the copter.
When NASA was able to reestablish contact, imagery revealed that the craft was critically damaged. The cause for the disconnection in communication is under investigation, NASA said.
While many in the scientific community are mourning the end of Ingenuity’s mission, NASA is heralding its many successes. It remained in operation 33 times longer than expected, was upgraded to be able to choose its own landing sites in treacherous terrain, overcame a dead sensor and cleaned itself after dust storms. It also operated from dozens of airfields, performed three emergency landings and survived a “frigid” Martian winter, in which it was never originally designed to operate, NASA said.
Ingenuity remains upright and is in communication with ground controllers. NASA says its team will perform final tests on its systems and download the remaining images and data on its onboard memory.
The Perseverance rover is too far away to attempt to capture an image of the helicopter at its final resting place, officials said.
“It’s humbling Ingenuity not only carries onboard a swatch from the original Wright Flyer, but also this helicopter followed in its footsteps and proved flight is possible on another world,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project manager.
He added that no flight, let alone 72 of them, would have been possible without the dedicated and talented teams behind both Ingenuity and Perseverance.
Ingenuity joins other NASA exploration crafts to recently complete their missions, joining the robotic lander InSight, which lost communication with Earth in December 2022; Opportunity rover, whose mission was determined complete in February 2019; and Spirit, Opportunity’s sister rover, whose mission was declared over in May 2011.
“History’s first Mars helicopter will leave behind an indelible mark on the future of space exploration and will inspire fleets of aircraft on Mars – and other worlds – for decades to come,” Tzanetos said.
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