Final images of Ingenuity reveal an entire blade broke off the helicopter

It’s been a few weeks since NASA’s tenacious helicopter landed on Mars. Originality and ingenuitymade its final flight over the Red Planet.

This happened last month. On January 6, Ingenuity flew 40 feet (12 meters) into the air, but made an unscheduled early landing after just 35 seconds. After 12 days, the operator intended to troubleshoot the vehicle with a simple up and down test. According to data from the aircraft, it again climbed to an altitude of 40 feet during the test, but at the end of the flight it mysteriously lost contact.

On January 20, NASA re-established communications with the helicopter, but the space agency subsequently declared the flight over for several days. Vehicle shadow image At least one blade was found to have sustained minor damage. This concludes this remarkable mission. Originality and ingenuity Exceeded all expectations.

At a press conference to discuss the end of the mission, NASA officials said they may never know exactly what happened during the mission. Originality and ingenuity‘s last two flights were ultimately fatal.But thanks to you PerseveranceThe probe that brought Originality and ingenuity Engineers who reached the surface of Mars and helped relay communications back to Earth found a powerful clue over the weekend.

find the chipped blade

The rover is now moving away from the helicopter and toward another landscape of scientific interest. After recently coming within about 1,500 feet (450 meters) of Originality and ingenuity, Perseverance We’ll probably never get this close again. But as it moved away, the spacecraft finally pointed its SuperCam remote at the helicopter. These images were taken this weekend and transmitted to Earth on Sunday. German design student Simeon Schmaus processed some of these images to create a mosaic showing the helicopter and its surroundings in the Neretva Gorge, an ancient waterway where water once flowed.

The new images are notable in that they reveal: Originality and ingenuity It was now more obvious than before that one rotor blade was completely broken off. Additional reconnaissance revealed that this blade was approximately 15 meters away from the. Originality and ingenuity The helicopter appears to have taken off its wings before or during landing on its final flight last month on the red sands of Mars.

This additional data will undoubtedly help the engineers and scientists who flew the helicopter piece together the helicopter’s final moments, potentially making the design of future vehicles on Mars and other worlds more robust. There is enough.