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A picture exhibiting Ingenuity’s broken rotor blade after its 72nd flight on Jan. 18, 2024. | Supply: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter’s time on Mars got here to an finish final week. Photos of Ingenuity’s shadow confirmed that its final flight broken a number of of its rotor blades.

Ingenuity started as a expertise demonstration. NASA hoped it might get not less than 5 flights over 30 days out of the helicopter. In the long run, Ingenuity accomplished 72 flights over virtually three years. It flew greater than 14 occasions farther than NASA initially deliberate and logged greater than two hours of whole flight time.

“Ingenuity was designed for as much as 5 flights over 30 Martian days. As we moved onto an prolonged mission for Ingenuity, we hoped to fly Ingenuity for just a few extra months, which unbelievably changed into years,” Ingenuity staff lead Joshua Anderson advised The Robotic Report. “After attaining 72 flights and surviving by a frigid Martian winter, I can confidently say that Ingenuity has far surpassed even our staff’s most optimistic goals!”

Ingenuity was the first plane to carry out powered, managed flight on one other planet. It set a distance report on its twenty fifth flight, protecting 2,310 ft (704 meters), an altitude report on Flight 61 at 78.7 ft (24 meters), and a groundspeed report on Flight 62 when it traveled at 22.3 mph (10 meters per second).

“Essentially the most thrilling achievement to me is that Ingenuity’s success has opened the door for flight on different worlds. I can’t wait to see the Dragonfly mission sooner or later fly on Titan, and future aircrafts making distinctive discoveries on Mars,” Anderson stated.

Whereas Ingenuity received’t be taking to the skies once more, its work isn’t performed. The Ingenuity staff will carry out ultimate checks on its techniques and obtain the remaining imagery and knowledge from its onboard reminiscence.

“The Ingenuity staff shall be engaged on retrieving the remaining flight knowledge onboard Ingenuity and gathering diagnostic knowledge in regards to the well being of the rotor system,” Anderson stated. “Because the venture wraps up, we’ll transfer onto different thrilling tasks at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.”

Ingenuity was so successful that NASA has already made plans to ship extra helicopters to Mars. It introduced in 2022 that it might be swapping out its Pattern Fetch Rovers for 2 drones for the Mars Pattern Return marketing campaign. In the course of the marketing campaign, two Ingenuity-like helicopters will retrieve samples from Perseverance whether it is unable to journey to the lander.

NASA will equip every helicopter with mobility wheels on its touchdown legs and one robotic arm. The helicopters will use their robotic arms to retrieve samples from Perseverance and transport them again to the lander. Finally, NASA will return these samples to Earth to review them.

To study extra about Ingenuity’s achievements on Mars, try the timeline beneath.

April 3, 2021: Ingenuity touches down on Mars
After reaching Mars on the Perseverance Rove’s stomach almost one month earlier, Ingenuity touched down on Mars on April 3, 2021. The helicopter weighs simply 4 lbs. (1.8 kg) and value $80 million to construct. Whereas hooked up to Perseverance, Ingenuity fed off the rover’s nuclear-powered system to cost itself and keep heat. After separating from Perseverance, Ingenuity drew energy from the solar by way of its photo voltaic panels. Ingenuity used a built-in heater to outlive the freezing chilly nights on Mars, the place temperatures can go as little as -130 levels Fahrenheit.

April 19, 2021: Ingenuity completes first flight
Ingenuity made historical past when it accomplished the primary powered, managed flight on one other planet. At 3:34 AM EDT on April 19, 2021, Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed most altitude of 10 ft (3 meters). It hovered within the air for 30 seconds earlier than descending again to the floor of Mars. It was within the air for a complete of 39.1 seconds.

Ingenuity’s preliminary flight demonstration was autonomous. It was piloted by onboard steerage, navigation, and management techniques operating algorithms. You’ll be able to relive the primary flight by watching the video beneath.

Could 7, 2021: Tech demo section ends
Ingenuity accomplished its fifth flight, and first one-way flight, on Could 7, 2021 to finish its expertise demonstration section. After the flight, Ingenuity grew to become an operations demonstration centered on investigating the helicopter’s limitations.

July 24, 2021: Ingenuity completes first scouting flight
As soon as Ingenuity completed its expertise demonstration section, NASA was in a position to make use of it to scout for the Perseverance Rover. This let the Perseverance staff be in two locations at one time.

April 8, 2022: Ingenuity units flight distance report
On its twenty fifth flight on Mars, Ingenuity set a brand new flight distance report. On April 8, 2022, Ingenuity coated a distance of two,310 ft (704 meters) at a pace of 12 MPH (5.5 meters per second). This was its longest and quickest flight on the planet on the time.

April 19, 2022: Recognizing Perseverance’s touchdown {hardware}
Ingenuity on April 19, 2022 noticed the parachute and cone-shaped backshell from Perseverance’s descent. The 70.5-foot-wide parachute helped the rover land on Mars after making its means by the Martian ambiance at almost 12,500 MPH. The rover hit the floor of Mars at 78 MPH, with safety from its backshell. Perseverance had beforehand imaged the particles, however NASA stated Ingenuity’s photos offered extra element.

Particles from Perseverance’s touchdown captured by Ingenuity from an altitude of 26 ft. | Supply: NASA/JPL

“Perseverance had the best-documented Mars touchdown in historical past, with cameras exhibiting every little thing from parachute inflation to landing,” Ian Clark, former Perseverance techniques engineer and now Mars Pattern Return ascent section lead, stated. “However Ingenuity’s photos provide a special vantage level. They both reinforce that our techniques labored as we expect they labored or present even one dataset of engineering data we will use for Mars Pattern Return planning, will probably be wonderful. And if not, the photographs are nonetheless phenomenal and galvanizing.”

April 13, 2023: Ingenuity completes fiftieth flight
Ingenuity flew greater than 1,057.2 ft (322.2 meters) in 145.7 seconds throughout its fiftieth flight. It landed close to the 0.5-mile-wide Belva Crater on Mars.

October 5, 2023: Ingenuity units altitude report
Ingenuity hit its highest altitude ever throughout its 61st flight. It flew to an altitude of 78.7 ft (24 meters) to take a look at Martian wind patterns.

October 12, 2023: Ingenuity units land pace report
Simply days after setting its altitude report, Ingenuity set a floor pace report. Throughout Flight 62, it traveled 22.3 MPH (10 meters per second) because it scouted for the Perseverance Rover.

“The info shall be extraordinarily helpful in fine-tuning our aero-mechanical fashions of how rotorcraft behave on Mars,” stated Travis Brown, Ingenuity’s chief engineer at JPL. “On Earth, such testing is normally carried out within the first few flights. However that’s not the place we’re flying. You need to be somewhat extra cautious whenever you’re working that distant from the closest restore store, since you don’t get any do-overs.”

January 18, 2024: Ingenuity’s ultimate flight
Ingenuity’s 72nd and ultimate flight occurred on January 18, 2024. NASA designed the flight to be a fast pop-up vertical flight to check the helicopter’s techniques after an unplanned touchdown on its earlier flight. Ingenuity climbed to the deliberate altitude, however bumped into hassle when coming down.

January 25, 2024: NASA retires Ingenuity
Photos of Ingenuity’s shadow confirmed injury to not less than one in all its rotors. NASA stated the helicopter could be unable to fly once more after virtually three years on Mars.

“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the primary plane on one other planet, has come to finish,” stated NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson. “That exceptional helicopter flew greater and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do greatest – make the unattainable, potential. By missions like Ingenuity, NASA is paving the best way for future flight in our photo voltaic system and smarter, safer human exploration to Mars and past.”

“At NASA JPL, innovation is on the coronary heart of what we do,” acknowledged Laurie Leshin, director of NASA JPL. “Ingenuity is an exemplar of the best way we push the boundaries of what’s potential daily. I’m extremely happy with our staff behind this historic technological achievement and desirous to see what they’ll invent subsequent.”