After damaging a rotor blade, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter mission ends on Mars
After completing 72 historic flights on Mars over three years, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter mission has ended. Originally designed as an experiment, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to operate and fly on another world, lifting off on April 19, 2021. Imagery and data returned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, showed that one or more of the chopper’s carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged while landing during its final flight this month.
The team determined that the helicopter is no longer able to fly, according to the space agency. Ingenuity, which had traveled to Mars as the Perseverance rover’s trusty sidekick, is sitting upright on the surface of the red planet, and mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been able to maintain communications with the rotorcraft.
The NASA mission team only expected the chopper to carry out five test flights in 30 days. After acing its five expected flights, Ingenuity graduated from its role as an experiment to serving as an aerial scout for the Perseverance rover. The chopper flew over areas of scientific interest to capture images and help the mission team determine Perseverance’s next targets for detailed analysis. The helicopter carried out its final flight on January 18.
Together, the rover and helicopter have spent the past few years exploring Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake and river delta on Mars. Scientists are hoping that samples collected by Perseverance, which will be returned to Earth by future missions, could determine whether life ever existed on the red planet.
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