- The US space agency Nasa said that one or more rotor blades of the Mars helicopter were damaged during a landing.
- Ingenuity is still upright and can communicate with the control center on Earth. But the helicopter could no longer fly.
- This means that the helicopter’s mission, which was originally only intended to last 30 days, will end after around three years on Mars.
“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to an end,” said NASA boss Bill Nelson. “This remarkable helicopter has flown higher and further than we could ever imagine, helping NASA do what we do best – make the impossible possible.”
Ingenuity (“Ingenuity”) landed on Mars in February 2021 with the Perseverance rover (“Perseverance”). Since then, he has been searching for traces of ancient microbial life on the planet and researching the planet’s climate and geology.
Shortly after landing, the helicopter became the first aircraft to fly on another planet. The helicopter completed a total of 72 flights with a total flight time of more than two hours.
Legend:
The helicopter is powered by lithium-ion batteries and weighs around 1.8 kilograms.
Keystone/EPA/NASA/JPL-Caltech
For its very first flight, the mini helicopter took off from the surface of Mars at 6:34 a.m. CEST in April 2021. It rose to a height of about three meters and then hovered for about 30 seconds before landing again. In total the flight lasted 39.1 seconds. The NASA scientists then designed ever new flight routes for Ingenuity.
The first Mars helicopter in history will shape the future of space exploration.
The helicopter had to withstand extreme conditions on Mars. At night it can get as cold as minus 90 degrees Celsius. This can easily mean a death sentence for batteries and electronics. The thin atmosphere is roughly only one percent as dense as that on Earth. Therefore, Ingenuity’s rotors had to accelerate to 2,537 revolutions per minute – many times more than helicopters on Earth. Ingenuity drew the energy for this effort from its battery, which was fed by solar rays.
Even if Ingenuity can no longer fly, the helicopter will influence the future of space travel, said NASA manager Teddy Tzanetos. “The first Mars helicopter in history will shape the future of space exploration and inspire fleets of aircraft on Mars – and other worlds – for decades to come.”