NASA says goodbye to its helicopter on Mars

“What Ingenuity has accomplished is far beyond what we thought was possible,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a video. [L’hélicoptère] It paved the way for future flights in our solar system.

In 2021, Ingenuity became the first robot to fly on another planet. Thus, he proved that it is possible to fly in the Martian air, with a density equivalent to only 1% of the density of the Earth's atmosphere. The helicopter was originally supposed to take off only five times, but because it performed so well, the mission was extended – until today.

The accident occurred last week during Flight No. 72. The helicopter had reached an altitude of 12 meters, but communication was suddenly lost shortly before landing. He was finally able to recover it the next day, but NASA teams were able to notice the “damage” in images recovered a few days later.

A photo taken by the same helicopter was published on Thursday, showing the shadow of one of its damaged rotor blades.

“About 25%” of the code is missing, Teddy Tzanitos, mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a news conference.

He stressed that “we may never know” exactly what happened, due to the temporary loss of data transmission at the end of the last flight. “But our engineering judgment leads us to believe that during landing, a blade struck the Martian surface.”

Therefore, the helicopter no longer has the necessary thrust to fly. The cause of the disconnection is still under investigation, but could be related to the impact itself, according to Tzanitos. He added that it is possible that other blades were damaged, which NASA teams are still seeking to confirm.

The space agency said that during its 71st flight, Ingenuity had already been forced to make an emergency landing. She was then operating in difficult terrain because she did not have much comfort, which presented a challenge to her autonomous navigation system, which relied on landmarks on the ground. Flight No. 72, which was scheduled to be short, was carried out under the same conditions.

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Far from being sad, this announcement paid tribute to all of the machine's achievements. “The innovation has completely shattered our exploration paradigm, adding a new atmospheric dimension,” said Lori Glaze, NASA's planetary science director.

The helicopter weighs only 1.8 kg and looks like a large drone. In total, he covered about 17 kilometers and flew at an altitude of 24 metres. Its cumulative flight time is more than two hours. He arrived on Mars in February 2021, aboard the Perseverance rover, whose mission is to search for traces of ancient microbial life on Mars. Thus Ingenuity was able to play the role of aerial reconnaissance to assist its wheeled companion.

NASA said that the latter is currently “too far away” to attempt to visit the helicopter and photograph it up close. Because the rover acts as a relay to transfer data between Ingenuity and Earth, contact with the helicopter will be lost when Perseverance continues its flight.

Ingenuity's longevity is remarkable, knowing in particular that it had to survive the freezing Martian nights by warming itself thanks to solar panels that charged its batteries during the day.

The US space agency is already working on another flying machine project, as part of the Dragonfly mission, this time with Saturn's largest moon, Titan, as its destination. Helicopters could also, in the future, aid human exploration of Mars, as Teddy Tzanitos said: “No one should be surprised anymore if the first astronauts, the first woman and the first man on the surface will in the future be surrounded by a planet in the sky.” A fleet of planes captures these scenes. »