After three years of flying in the ultra-thin skies of Red planet, NASA's autonomous Ingenuity helicopter has lifted-off for the final one before being been grounded for ever.
A NASA Press realease reads,
NASA’s history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has ended its mission at the Red Planet after surpassing expectations and making dozens more flights than planned.
While the helicopter is still alive for communications, the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) helicopter, through recent images revealed that one or multiple of its rotor blades sustained irreparable damage after its last flight, i.e. Ingenuity's 72nd flight over Mars, — rendering it unairworthy.
After its 72nd flight on Jan. 18, 2024, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured this color image showing the shadow of a rotor blade damaged during a rough landing. ????Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
The NASA release read further,
While the helicopter remains upright and in communication with ground controllers, imagery of its Jan. 18 flight sent to Earth this week indicates one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing, and it is no longer capable of flight.
Originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, the first aircraft on another world operated from the Martian surface for almost three years, performed 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while logging more than two hours of total flight time.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the statement,
"The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end," "That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined."
Ingenuity landed in Mars' Jezero Crater under the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover in February 2021. Initially designed as a mere technology experimentation and demonstration rotocraft to challenge Mars atmosphere , and not meant to fly more than five times, the helicopter exceeded all expectations.
Ingenuity lift-offs, not only proved that flight is possible in Mars' ultra-thin atmosphere, that has a volume of about 1% than that of Earth's, but also flew much higher and farther than designers anticipated.
Ingenuity was later used as an extension doing aerial scouts for Perseverance, scoping out the nearby terrain of Jezero and looking for possible targets to study. The helicopter ultimately completed 72 flights over the next three years, clocking around 129 minutes of flight time in the atmosphere of Mars.
Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said,
“At NASA JPL, innovation is at the heart of what we do,” “Ingenuity is an exemplar of the way we push the boundaries of what’s possible every day. I’m incredibly proud of our team behind this historic technological achievement and eager to see what they’ll invent next.”
As per NASA, on Jan.18th 2024 , Ingenuity’s team planned for the helicopter to make a short vertical flight to determine its location after executing an emergency landing on its previous flight. But, Data revealed that, as planned, the helicopter achieved a maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters) and hovered for 4.5 seconds before starting its descent at a velocity of 3.3 feet per second (1 meter per second).
However, about 3 feet (1 meter) above the surface, Ingenuity lost contact with the rover, which serves as a communications relay for the rotorcraft. The following day, communications were reestablished and more information about the flight was relayed to ground controllers at NASA JPL.
Imagery revealing damage to the rotor blade arrived several days later. The cause of the communications dropout and the helicopter’s orientation at time of touchdown are still being investigated.
Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days, more than 33 times longer than originally planned, Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, cleaned itself after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter.
Designed to operate in spring, Ingenuity was unable to power its heaters throughout the night during the coldest parts of winter, resulting in the flight computer periodically freezing and resetting. These power “brownouts” required the team to redesign Ingenuity’s winter operations in order to keep flying.
With flight operations now concluded, the Ingenuity team will perform final tests on helicopter systems and download the remaining imagery and data in Ingenuity’s onboard memory. The Perseverance rover is currently too far away to attempt to image the helicopter at its final airfield.
Ingenuity’s project manager, Teddy Tzanetos of NASA JPL said,
“It’s humbling Ingenuity not only carries onboard a swatch from the original Wright Flyer, but also this helicopter followed in its footsteps and proved flight is possible on another world,”
“The Mars helicopter would have never flown once, much less 72 times, if it were not for the passion and dedication of the Ingenuity and Perseverance teams. History’s first Mars helicopter will leave behind an indelible mark on the future of space exploration and will inspire fleets of aircraft on Mars – and other worlds – for decades to come.”
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