After 3 years of flying across Mars, NASA has ended the Mars helicopter Ingenuity’s mission. During its most recent flight, NASA lost contact with the helicopter for several hours. And although they managed to regain contact with the probe they learned that it had made an emergency on the ground. They discovered that it had damaged its rotor blades during the incident. This unfortunately means that Ingenuity had no more chance to fly again safely.
“Helicopters like this are not designed to fly even with the smallest fraction of a grant of imbalance and we're gonna have the end of our mission in the weeks ahead," says Teddy Tzanetos, the Project Manger for the Ingenuity mission.
A Legacy To Remember
Ingenuity landed on Mars in February 2021 with the Perseverance Mars rover. After it was deployed onto the surface in March the helicopter waited a month before it was able to fly. But finally on April 19, 2021, the helicopter made its frist flight into space. The helicopter was intended to fly a total 5 flights over a 30 day period. Before Ingenuity no one even knew for sure that you could conduct a powered flight on another planet. But Ingenuity proved that you could. Ingenuity racked up over 70 flights and clocked up almost three hours total of flight time on the red planet. The highest it flew was during Flight 57, which it reach an attitude of 78 feet. The longest it flew was during Flight 69 which it reached almost 3 minutes in the air. Although those feats may have seem diminutive compared to Earth helicopters, Ingenuity opened up new door way to flight on Mars.
The Sad, Happy Ending
Ingenuity’s mission is expected to end in a few weeks. The mission team plans to power off the helicopter, but they are still very proud of the results of the mission. "We couldn't be prouder or happier with how our little baby has done," Tzanetos said in a statement on Wednesday (Jan. 31) ."It's been the mission of a lifetime for all of us.”
I have enjoyed writing about Ingenuity’s adventures on Mars, and now that its mission has ended I feel sad that it has to go. But, it has changed our understanding of science that I am grateful for.