NASA’s ‘tough’ Mars helicopter ends nearly 3-year mission

NASA helicopter deemed 'little tough trailblazer'
Chopper covered 11 miles in its two hours of flight time
New Mars helicopters will be able to fly in thin atmosphere

Updated: Jan 26, 2024 / 07:07 PM CST

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic of a location nicknamed “Castell Henllys” using its Mastcam-Z camera on April 13, 2023, the 763rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

(NewsNation) — A NASA helicopter deemed a “little tough trailblazer” ended its nearly three-year mission this week after soaring across the surface of Mars before damaging one or more of its rotors following a hard landing last week, NASA officials said.

The Ingenuity helicopter was designed to fly just five test flights over 30 days but logged 72 flights since 2021. But NASA announced Thursday that the helicopter’s mission following a hard or tilted landing Jan. 18 damaged one or more of the craft’s rotors.

NASA officials reported that the chopper covered 11 miles in its two hours of flight time, which was 14 times what project managers planned for the small helicopter.

“We couldn’t be prouder of our little tough trailblazer,” Teddy Tzanetos, the Ingenuity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said at a news conference Thursday, according to CBS News. “While Ingenuity is not going to fly again, new generations of Mars helicopters are on the drawing board, and we’re excited for what the future will hold in the skies of Mars.”

Ingenuity landed on Mars in February 2021, attached to the underbelly of the Perseverance rover, viewed by NASA officials as a low-cost, high-reward technology test case. The 4-pound helicopter was built at the Pasadena, California Jet Propulsion Lab with mostly off-the-shelf parts to keep costs at a minimum. In April 2021, the Ingenuity became the first helicopter or airplane to take off from a different planet.

The craft’s rotors spun 2,400 times per minute to generate enough lift to accommodate Mars’ thin atmosphere, The New York Times previously reported. NASA officials praised the ingenuity that went into the helicopter while also celebrating the length of the unexpected marathon mission.

“Ingenuity, the little helicopter that could — and it kept saying, ‘I think I can, I think I can’ — well, has taken its last flight on Mars,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a video posted to X.