Earlier this class , the NASA whirlybird Ingenuitycame to the end of its missionafter an incredible 72 flights on Mars . The helicopter flew a remarkable 30 time far than plan , and was the first rotocopter to vanish on another satellite , essay that explore distant worlds from the air travel is possible . Now , NASA has discover new details about what incisively cause the crash that bring the missionary work to an closing , and what it learned about flying helicopters for future foreign mission .
The final flight of steps of Ingenuity took post on January 18 , 2024 , when the eggbeater rose briefly into the air in a tactics called a record hop . The eggbeater was fit with a figure of cameras , and shadows cast onto the satellite ’s open bring out that one of the eggbeater ’s rotor coil blades was missing , having apparently separated at the mast . But it was n’t certain what had caused this equipment casualty .
“ When running an fortuity investigation from 100 million miles off , you do n’t have any black boxwood or eyewitnesses,”saidIngenuity ’s first pilot , Håvard Grip of NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory . “ While multiple scenarios are executable with the available data , we have one we believe is most likely : deficiency of control surface grain give the navigation organization too little information to work with . ”
The problem seems to be , ironically enough , that the background beneath the helicopter was too unruffled and featureless . The chopper had to be able to maneuver itself autonomously , due to the communications lag between Earth and Mars , so it used data from a down - facing camera to track its movement across the surface . With no characteristic on the surface during this particular flight of steps , the whirlybird ’s information processing system could not accurately tail its velocity , and it landed too hard , which caused the terms .
Further investigating found that the likely trouble was that Ingenuity murder the surface too intemperately , then flip to one side and undulate over . That meant weight was put onto the very visible light and delicate rotor coil blade , causing all four of them to snap at the tips . That produce shakiness in the organization , which ripped one steel off its mast completely .
This have in mind Ingenuity can no longer fly , but it does still transmit data point about weather condition atmospheric condition to the nearby Perseverance bird of passage once per week . That ’s impressive count its electronics were passably canonical .
“ Because Ingenuity was designed to be low-cost while demand huge amounts of information processing system power , we became the first deputation to fell commercial off - the - ledge cellular telephone processors in cryptical space , ” enjoin Teddy Tzanetos , ingeniousness ’s project manager . “ We ’re now go up four years of continuous operations , suggesting that not everything involve to be bigger , heavier , and radiation - harden to work in the harsh Martian environment . ”
The Ingenuity mission was such a considerable success that NASA is already plan more rotorcraft delegation in the future . One estimation is for another Mars whirlybird to be used as part of theMars Sample Returnprogram , which would be enceinte and heavier than Ingenuity and could carry skill equipment in its explorations .
“ Ingenuity has given us the confidence and data to envision the future of trajectory at Mars , ” Tzanetos said .
