NASA ends Ingenuity helicopter mission after 72 flights to Mars

POT confirmed that the helicopter’s mission Ingenuity came to an end after its last flight in Mars suffered damage to one of the main rotor blades. The service life of the robot exceeded initial expectations.

A plane the size of a tissue box that traveled attached to a robot. Perseverance first rose from the surface on April 19, 2023 and made story upon reaching first controlled flight and is driven by a motorized device on another planet.

“What Ingenuity has achieved goes far beyond what we thought possible.”– said the director NASA, Bill Nelson, via video, which assured that the helicopter “paved the way for future flights in our solar system.”

The Ingenuity mission is an important milestone in NASA history.

The US Aerospace Administration confirmed the completion of the mission Ingenuity. This is an important milestone in history POT which managed to significantly exceed initial expectations.

As the agency clarifies, It was expected to take off only five times, but it managed to do so 72 times. the last one was on January 18, when it reached a height of 12 meters, but shortly before landing, communications were abruptly interrupted, AFP reported.

In total, he covered about 17 kilometers and rose to a height of 24 meters, fulfilling his role aerial explorer help robot V look for signs of life microbes that existed billions of years ago, when Mars was much wetter and warmer than it is today.

Ingenuity “can’t fly anymore”

A few days after the team’s last flight space agency They managed to reconnect and observe damage on the engine blade.

“We looked into the possibility that the shovel fell on the ground,” Bill Nelson said. The helicopter is “no longer capable of flying”confirm POT in a statement saying the cause was under investigation.

Shocking images that Ingenuity managed to take on Mars

He April 19, 2021He Ingenuity belonging POT made history by performing his first successful flight in Marsbecoming first vehicle to fly to another planet. Since then, it has overcome many challenges, including flying to ever greater altitudes and distances, obtaining images and data that have enriched our understanding of the Red Planet.

He NASA vehicle There was a camera that allowed you to see the floor Mars while driving. Thus, the team was able to observe the area during their missions, which the US space agency then shared on its official pages.

User X (formerly Twitter) called @landru79 made a compilation in GIF mode, in which you can see the material recorded by the artifact from Mars. General images show the 411 meters distance Ingenuity traveled on this flight.