After three years of service, the NASA helicopter has flown for the last time on Mars. Earlier this month, during its 72nd flight, Ingenuity with the Perseverance rover. Although it was later learned that at least one of Ingenuity's carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged during a landing on January 18. The helicopter is upright and is still in contact with ground controllers, but is no longer capable of flight.
The device far outlived its originally planned useful life. NASA designed the helicopter to perform up to five test flights over 30 days. But it remained in service for more than three years. Ingenuity flew 14 times farther than originally planned and had a total flight time of more than two hours.
“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to an end,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. . “That extraordinary helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best: make the impossible possible. “Through missions like Ingenuity, NASA is paving the way for future flights in our solar system and smarter, safer human exploration to Mars and beyond.”
After Ingenuity's five initial flights, NASA decided to keep the helicopter operational as an operations demonstration. .
On January 18, the Ingenuity team planned a short vertical flight to determine the location of the helicopter after it had to make an emergency landing on its previous trip. The helicopter reached a height of 40 feet and hovered for 4.5 seconds before descending at a speed of 3.3 feet per second. However, it lost contact with Perseverance when it was about three feet above the surface.
It is unclear how the rotor blade was damaged. NASA is investigating whether the shovel hit the surface. Perseverance is too far away for The helicopter's own camera detected damage to the shadow of a rotor blade.
The rugged helicopter endured difficult terrain, a dead sensor, dust storms (after which it was able to clean itself), and a winter on Mars. The Ingenuity team will end helicopter operations after conducting final tests and downloading the latest data and images from its memory. After making history as the first plane from Earth to , all Ingenuity can do now is rest easy on the surface of Mars.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-has-flown-on-mars-for-the-final-time-204004656.html?src=rss
