The Final Soar: Unraveling the Last Journey of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity

This review thoroughly examines the final flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was the inaugural aircraft to fly on a different celestial body.

Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California alongside AeroVironment are finalizing a comprehensive evaluation of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s last flight on Jan. 18, 2024. The results will be published shortly as a NASA technical report.

Initially crafted as a technology test to execute up to five experimental flights over 30 days, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to soar on another planet. It operated for nearly three years, accomplished 72 flights, and traveled more than 30 times farther than initially projected while gathering over two hours of flight duration.

The investigation determines that the failure of Ingenuity’s navigation system to deliver accurate information during its flight likely triggered a sequence of events that concluded the mission. The outcomes of this report are anticipated to enhance future Mars helicopters, along with other flying vehicles intended for exploration on various worlds.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter utilized its black-and-white navigation camera to record this video on Feb. 11, 2024, showcasing the shadow of its rotor blades. The footage verified that damage had occurred during Flight 72. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Final Ascent

Flight 72 was designed as a brief vertical ascent to evaluate Ingenuity’s flight systems and capture images of the surroundings. Data from the flight indicates Ingenuity ascended to 40 feet (12 meters), hovered, and recorded pictures. It began its descent at 19 seconds, and by 32 seconds the helicopter had returned to the ground and ceased communications. The next day, the mission reestablished contact, and images received six days post-flight revealed that Ingenuity had sustained significant damage to its rotor blades.

What Occurred

“Conducting an accident investigation from 100 million miles away means there are no black boxes or eyewitnesses,” stated Ingenuity’s initial pilot, Håvard Grip from JPL. “While several scenarios are plausible with the data at hand, we favor one that seems most probable: Insufficient surface texture provided the navigation system with too little information to function effectively.”

The helicopter’s visual navigation system was intended to identify visual features on the surface utilizing a downward-facing camera over well-textured (pebbly) but flat terrain. This restricted tracking capability sufficed for Ingenuity’s initial five flights. However, during Flight 72, the helicopter was operating in an area of Jezero Crater characterized by steep, relatively untextured sand ripples.

A primary requirement of the navigation system was to deliver velocity estimates that would enable the helicopter to land within a narrow range of vertical and horizontal velocities. Data transmitted during Flight 72 indicates that approximately 20 seconds post-launch, the navigation system was unable to locate sufficient surface features to track.

Images captured after the flight reveal that navigation discrepancies induced high horizontal velocities upon landing. In the most plausible scenario, the solid landing on the slope of the sand ripple caused Ingenuity to pitch and roll. The quick change in attitude generated loads on the fast-spinning rotor blades exceeding their design capabilities, resulting in the breakage of all four blades at their weakest point — roughly a third of the way from their tips. The damaged blades caused excessive vibrations within the rotor system, tearing one blade from its root and generating excessive power demands, leading to communication loss.

This brief animation illustrates a NASA concept for a proposed continuation to the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, named Mars Chopper, which remains at early conceptual and design phases. Besides scouting capabilities, such a helicopter could carry scientific instruments to explore terrains unreachable by rovers. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This brief animation illustrates a NASA concept for a proposed continuation to the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, named Mars Chopper, which remains at early conceptual and design phases. Besides scouting capabilities, such a helicopter could carry scientific instruments to explore terrains unreachable by rovers. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Down but Not Defeated

Despite Flight 72 permanently sidelining Ingenuity, the helicopter continues to transmit weather and avionics test data to the Perseverance rover approximately once a week. The meteorological data could assist future explorers of the Red Planet. The avionics data is also proving beneficial for engineers developing future designs of aircraft and other vehicles intended for the Martian surface.

“Ingenuity was built to be cost-effective while requiring substantial computational power, making us the inaugural mission to deploy commercial off-the-shelf cellphone processors in deep space,” expressed Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project leader. “We are nearing four years of unbroken operations, indicating that not everything must be larger, heavier, and radiation-hardened to function in the demanding Martian environment.”

Motivated by Ingenuity’s durability, NASA engineers have been experimenting with smaller, lighter avionics that could be utilized in vehicle designs for the Mars Sample Return initiative. The data is also assisting engineers as they explore what a future Mars helicopter might resemble — and achieve.

This illustration illustrates the most plausible situation for the hard descent of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its final and 72nd flight on Jan. 18, 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In a briefing on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at the American Geophysical Union’s annual conference in Washington, Tzanetos revealed insights about the Mars Chopper rotorcraft, a concept currently being studied by him and other former Ingenuity team members. As intended, Chopper weighs nearly 20 times more than Ingenuity, has the capability to carry several pounds of scientific instruments, and can independently investigate distant Martian sites while covering up to 2 miles (3 kilometers) within a day. (Ingenuity’s longest journey was recorded at 2,310 feet, or 704 meters.)

“Ingenuity has instilled in us the assurance and information to envision the future of aerial travel on Mars,” stated Tzanetos.

Additional Insights on Ingenuity

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was constructed by JPL, which also oversees the mission for NASA Headquarters. It receives backing from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Significant analysis of flight performance and technical support during Ingenuity’s development came from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Design support and primary vehicle components were also provided by AeroVironment, Qualcomm, and SolAero. Lockheed Space was responsible for the design and manufacturing of the Mars Helicopter Delivery System. Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars helicopter at NASA Headquarters.

For further details about Ingenuity:

Astrobiology