Gone are the days when Ingenuity helicopters flew. After making an incredible 72 flights in about three years, the drone suffered damage to one of its rotors and was no longer able to fly through the Martian skies.
After landing on Mars with the Perseverance rover in 2021, Ingenuity’s mission was to fly five times over the course of about a month to a maximum altitude of about 5 meters. The goal was simply to prove that it was possible to fly a powered aircraft on another world, and since this difficult feat had never been attempted before, NASA operators pushed the aircraft forward. This mission exceeded its intended purpose when it was expected to end in a crash landing. However, Ingenuity surprisingly exceeded expectations.
“Through our ingenuity, we have completely disrupted our exploration paradigm by introducing this new dimension of airborne mobility.” Lori Glaze A press conference was held on January 25th at NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Maryland. It traveled approximately 17 kilometers, more than 14 times the originally planned distance, and served as an aerial reconnaissance probe for the Perseverance spacecraft.
Image taken by the Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars taken by the Perseverance rover
NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
Ingenuity reached a maximum altitude of 24 meters over the course of 72 flights, with a longest flight time of almost three minutes. Both of these dramatically exceeded all predictions made about the helicopter’s capabilities. This proved beyond doubt that drones are a viable way to explore regions of Mars, and perhaps other worlds, that are difficult or impossible to reach with traditional spacecraft.
Ingenuity photographed its own shadow while hovering
NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
However, on its penultimate flight on January 6, Ingenuity had to make an emergency landing, only the third time in the entire mission. This was the beginning of the end. On January 18, Ingenuity made what would be her final flight, performing a simple vertical flight to determine her exact location after an emergency landing.
While hovering toward the surface, communication between the Perseverance rover and its controllers on Earth was temporarily lost. When it regained contact and reached the ground, one of its rotors was severely damaged. It is unclear whether the loss of communication led to rotor damage or vice versa, and we may never know. Either way, the result is the same. Ingenuity completed its final flight.
However, this will not be the last aircraft to fly on another world. There are plans to send a similar small craft to Mars to retrieve samples collected by Perseverance and hidden on the surface, and a larger Dragonfly is scheduled to launch to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2028.
“These missions lay the foundation for a bright future.” laurie lacein Press conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “It’s really important that we continue to look for places and look for opportunities to fly these things and get that flying experience.” Ingenuity was a small plane, but it left a big legacy .
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