The little helicopter that could, and did, has flown its last mission after damaging one of its carbon fiber propeller blades. After three years of flying, Ingenuity totaled 72 total missions of its planned, five test flights, making it one of NASA‘s greatest achieving missions on the red planet.
Ingenuity suffers damaged blade after flight 72
In a video statement posted to the various NASA channels and social media platforms, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that Ingenuity’s mission is complete. The helicopter recently completed its 72nd flight on January 18, which ended with a loss of communication to Perseverance.
The flight took Ingenuity up to an altitude of 40 feet and then back down. It’s total flight time was just about 30 seconds with the profile being called a “pop-up” flight. Sadly on its descent, just before landing, one of the four blades that power Ingenuity was damaged. NASA believes it struck the ground just before landing.
Perseverance began searching for the helicopter’s signal which it eventually found. Photos downloaded from Ingenuity’s cameras show a large chunk missing from one of its blades.
NASA doesn’t know exactly what went wrong during Flight 72 but there will be no more flights moving forward. For any of us that fly drones, or I guess even full on helicopters, damaged blades induce instability to the flight and would likely lead to a full on crash.
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A mission for the history books
Ingenuity will go down as one of NASA’s greatest missions. Dare I say it to be compared to the Apollo program, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station. Ingenuity’s goal was to just perform five test flights to prove flight on another planet was possible. A goal that researchers didn’t know was actually going to be achievable or not in the real world.
Since those first few test flights three years ago, the idea of flying on Mars has shifted from a nice tech demonstrator to a game changer for mission planning.
After five tech demonstration missions, Ingenuity moved on to supporting its interplanetary partner, Perseverance, in exploring Jezero crater. Last year Ingenuity added a few flight testing mission under its belt as NASA planned on how flight on Mars differs from here on Earth.
With 72 flights completed, that’s what a 1,340% increase in the expected lifespan of the mission? 3,370% if you base it off of its 30 day life expectancy. While it doesn’t come anywhere close to Opportunity’s 5,846% lifespan buff, it’s about on par with Sojourner, NASA’s last Martian tech demo (a rover).
Ingenuity will seemingly share a similar fait as Sojourner, serving as a humble start to the next generation of planetary exploration. Several of NASA’s next missions to Mars and beyond are looking at utilizing flight in their missions.
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