NASA said Thursday that the Ingenuity Mars robotic helicopter, the first vehicle to achieve powered and controlled flight on another world, has been grounded for good after flying dozens of times over three years, ending a landmark mission that far exceeded all expectations.
Ingenuity’s fate was sealed when imagery beamed back to Earth after its 72nd and final flight on Jan. 18 showed that part of one of the whirligig’s tiny twin rotor blades had broken off, rendering it unable to operate further, NASA officials said.
“It is bittersweet that I must announce that Ingenuity, the ‘little helicopter that can’ – and it keeps saying, ‘I think I can, I think I can’ – well, it has now made its last flight on Mars,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a video posted on social media.
What was planned as a 30-day technology demonstration of no more than five short flights ended up far beyond the expectations of the engineers who designed and built the helicopter at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.
NASA’s robotic helicopter Ingenuity completes its final mission after 72 historic flights on Mars. via REUTERS
Intelligence ended up buzzing the Martian region 14 times farther than planned, clocking a flight time of more than two hours, eight minutes and covering a distance of 10.5 miles through all 72 flights. Its peak height is measured at 78.7 feet.
The spinning craft was brought to the Red Planet strapped to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover, which landed three years ago on the floor of a vast Martian basin called Jerezo Crater on a separate mission aimed primarily at collecting surface samples to return to Earth. .
MARTIAN WRIGHT BROTHERS MOMENT
When the 4-pound rotorcraft made its modest maiden takeoff and landing in the thin Martian atmosphere on April 19, 2021 – a 39-second flight – it was hailed as a major milestone in interplanetary flight.
NASA likened Ingenuity’s achievement at Jerezo Crater to the historic first controlled flight of the Wright brothers’ motor-powered airplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in December 1903.
Over time, JPL continued to send the helicopter on increasingly ambitious flights, pushing its capabilities.
Photo from Ingenuity’s first flight on Mars on April 19, 2021. It is the first example of powered and controlled flight on another planet. NASA/JPL/Caltech/AFP via Getty Images
The end came after the JPL team began flying Ingenuity into a barren, featureless region of Mars, testing the limits of an automated navigation system that relies on visible landmarks for flight guidance, according to Teddy Tzanetos, JPL’s Ingenuity project manager.
The US space agency said Ingenuity made an “emergency landing” during its last flight on January 6, apparently descending more sharply than planned due to navigational confusion.
When JPL controllers attempted a brief vertical flight 12 days later to determine Ingenuity’s location, data showed it lifted off the ground, hovered briefly, then began its descent before losing contact with the rover, which serves as its communications relay with Earth.
An image sent by a helicopter several days later captured the shadow of its damaged rotor blade, apparently broken during its final landing, Tzanetos told reporters.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter damaged its rotor blades during Flight 72 landing on January 25, 2024. NASA/JPL/AFP via Getty Images
Engineers believe the guidance difficulties posed by the “bland” terrain over which Ingenuity flies result in a loss of balance that causes the vehicle to suddenly tilt or move sideways, which in turn leads to the rotor hitting the surface, Tzanetos said.
Intelligence, resembling a box with four legs and an umbrella of rotor blades and solar panels, will live out its final days idle but emit periodic data coverage before losing contact with the rover as Persistence moves further.
Still, NASA officials are celebrating Ingenuity’s exploits as paving the way for new modes of aerial exploration on Mars and elsewhere in the solar system, such as Saturn’s moon Titan, where a rotorcraft called Dragonfly is under development.
Intelligence, resembling a box with four legs and an umbrella of rotor blades and solar panels, will live out its final days idle but emit periodic data coverage before losing contact with the rover as Persistence moves further. AP
Building a helicopter to fly on Mars poses major engineering hurdles.
Although Mars has less gravity to overcome than Earth, its atmosphere is only 1% denser, making it extremely difficult to gain aerodynamic lift.
As such, Ingenuity has been fitted with larger rotor blades and spins much faster than would be required on Earth for a craft of similar size.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter prototype on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia on Dec. 15, 2023. NASA/Joel Kowsky/SWNS
The small and light vehicle also had to endure the cold, with nighttime temperatures dropping as low as 130 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
Engineers will conduct final tests on Ingenuity and download the remaining images from its onboard computer, NASA said.
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