“What Ingenuity has accomplished goes far beyond what we thought possible,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a video. [L’hélicoptère] paved the way for future flights in our solar system.
In 2021, Ingenuity became the first powered device to fly on another planet. In doing so, he proved that it is possible to fly in Martian air, the density of which is only 1% of Earth's atmosphere. The helicopter was originally only supposed to take off five times, but due to its very good performance, the mission was extended – until today.
The accident occurred last week on the 72nd flight. The helicopter had reached a height of 12 meters, but shortly before landing the communication suddenly stopped. It was finally recovered the next day, but NASA teams were able to detect “damage” in images recovered a few days later.
A photo taken of the helicopter itself was released on Thursday, showing the shadow of one of its damaged rotor blades.
“About 25%” of the rotor blade is missing, Teddy Tzanetos, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said at a news conference.
“We may never know” what exactly happened because data transmission was temporarily interrupted at the end of the last flight, he stressed. “But our technical judgment leads us to believe that a blade struck the Martian surface during descent.”
The helicopter therefore no longer has the thrust necessary for flight. The cause of the communications disruption is still under investigation but, according to Tzanetos, could be related to the impact itself. He said other blades were likely damaged, something NASA teams are still trying to confirm.
Ingenuity had to make an emergency landing during its 71st flight, the space agency said. At the time, it was traveling in difficult terrain because it didn't have much relief – a challenge for its autonomous navigation system, which relied on landmarks on the ground. The 72nd flight, planned at short notice, was carried out under the same conditions.
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Far from being sad, the announcement made it possible to appreciate all of the machine's achievements. “Ingenuity has completely disrupted our exploration paradigm and added a new air dimension,” said Lori Glaze, director of planetary science at NASA.
Weighing just 1.8kg, the helicopter looked more like a large drone. In total it covered around 17 kilometers and flew to a height of 24 meters. Its cumulative flight time is more than two hours. He arrived on Mars in February 2021 with the Perseverance rover, whose mission is to search for traces of ancient microbial life on Mars. Ingenuity was thus able to take on the role of an aerial reconnaissance aircraft to assist its wheeled companion.
The latter is currently “too far away” to attempt to visit the helicopter and photograph it up close, NASA said. Because the rover serves as a relay for data transmission between Ingenuity and Earth, communication with the helicopter will be lost as Perseverance continues its journey.
Ingenuity's longevity is remarkable, especially knowing that it had to survive the freezing nights on Mars by warming itself using solar panels that charged its batteries during the day.
The American 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 the target. Helicopters could also help human exploration of Mars in the future, argued Teddy Tzanetos: “No one should be surprised anymore if in the future the first astronauts, the first woman and the first man on the surface are surrounded by a fleet of aircraft that capture these scenes. »