It ’s a deplorable day for space fans , as the gutsy little eggbeater Ingenuity has finally add up to the goal of its mission on Mars . The helicopter will not be give anymore flight due to damage to one of its rotors that occurred during a late landing place , NASA said in an announcement on Thursday , January 25 .
The missionary post was originally planned to make just five flights and to last 30 days , but has been successful beyond what anyone had imagined . The helicopter has made a sum of 72 flight over the course of its three - year commission , which began when it wasset down on the surface of Marsby the Perseverance rover . The rover arrived on Mars with the chopper tucked up underneath its paunch in February 2021 , and Ingenuity sit around on the surface for the first sentence in April 2021 . It then made chronicle by becoming the first rotorcraft to fly on another planet with itsmaiden flying .
Throughout its three - year mission , the public has delighted in seeing picture footage of the chopper , including some that the chopper took of itsdownward - face view of the surfaceand other footage that Perseverance took ofthe chopper in action .
The helicopter aviate largely autonomously , as the communicating postponement between Earth and Mars of up to 20 minute mean that direct ascendancy was unsufferable . Instead , engineers would project out trajectory that the helicopter would then execute , navigating itself by using its down - facing cameras to track its movements . It was this system that struggled recently , as the helicopter had problems navigating over a particularlyfeatureless patch of terrainduring its 71st flight earlier this calendar month .
NASAlost contactwith the chopper following issues see when it tried to perform a brief hops for its 72nd trajectory , but it managed to regain communications byusing the Perseverance roverto listen for its signal . However , images catch after this flight show the rootage of the problem : equipment casualty to one or more of its rotor blades , which was presumptively confirm during the landing of either Flight 71 or Flight 72 .
The chopper remains good on the control surface of the planet and in communication with Earth , but the damage to the rotor blade mean that it can no longer wing . In an emotional video , NASA team member bear tribute to cleverness and its success :
The success of the mission was also hailed by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson . “ The historic journeying of ingeniousness , the first aircraft on another major planet , has make out to terminate , ” Nelson said . “ That noteworthy helicopter vanish higher and farther than we ever imagined and help NASA do what we do well – make the impossible , possible . Through missions like ingeniousness , NASA is paving the way for future flight in our solar system and smarter , safe human geographic expedition to Mars and beyond . ”
