After three years and 72 flights, “the journey is over”: NASA helicopter on Mars no longer flies

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Mars helicopter Ingenuity can no longer fly. Images sent to Earth this week show that one or more of the mini helicopter’s rotor blades were damaged during landing, US space agency NASA said on Thursday. Although Ingenuity is still upright and able to communicate with the control center on Earth, the helicopter can no longer fly. It was stated that the helicopter’s mission, which was initially planned to last only 30 days, ended on Mars after approximately three years.

“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to an end,” said NASA boss Bill Nelson, 81. “This remarkable helicopter flew higher than we could have imagined and helped NASA do what we do best: make the impossible possible.”

Ingenuity (“ingenuity” in German) landed on Mars in February 2021 with the Perseverance (“perseverance”) rover, which has since been searching for traces of previous microbial life on the planet and investigating the planet’s climate and geology. Shortly after landing, the helicopter, powered by lithium-ion batteries and weighing approximately 1.8 kilograms, became the first aircraft to complete a flight on another planet. The helicopter performed a total of 72 flights with a total flight time exceeding two hours.

Mini helicopters impact the future of space travel

For its maiden flight, the mini helicopter took off from the Martian surface at 6:34 am (CEST) in April 2021, rising to a height of approximately three meters and then hovering for approximately 30 seconds before landing again. In total, the flight lasted 39.1 seconds. NASA scientists then designed new flight paths for Ingenuity.

The helicopter had to withstand extreme conditions on Mars: At night it was as cold as minus 90 degrees Celsius, which could easily mean a death sentence for batteries and electronic devices. Because of the thin atmosphere, which is roughly only one-hundredth as dense as Earth’s, Ingenuity’s rotors had to accelerate to 2,537 revolutions per minute; this was several times the speed of helicopters on Earth. “Ingenuity” received the energy for this effort from its battery fed by sunlight.

NASA administrator Teddy Tzanetos said that even if Ingenuity can no longer fly, the helicopter will impact the future of space travel. “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.” (SDA)

Source : Blick