NASA helicopter on Mars ends its mission – 01/26/2024 – Science

Ingenuity, the small NASA helicopter that flew around Mars, has reached the end of its mission.

At least one rotor broke during its most recent flight, last week, the American special agency announced this Thursday (25).

The helicopter remains in contact with its companion, the Perseverance rover, which has been exploring a dry riverbed for signs of life.

Now it will be left behind.

“The little helicopter made its last flight on Mars,” said Bill Nelson, the agency’s administrator.

Ingenuity arrived at Mars on the bottom of the Perseverance rover in February 2021. The helicopter was a late addition to the mission, providing important lessons for future mission designers during its 72 flights through the red planet’s atmosphere.

“They can count on what we have achieved,” said Theodore Tzanetos, the Ingenuity project manager. “They can point to the fact that a 2015 cell phone processor can survive the radiation environment on Mars for two and a half years. Commercial, off-the-shelf lithium-ion battery cells can survive for two and a half years. These are huge victories for NASA engineers.”

On April 19, 2021, Ingenuity became the first helicopter to take off on another planet. Its propellers turned 2,400 times per minute to generate enough lift in an atmosphere that is just one hundredth the density of Earth’s.

The plan, at the time, was to carry out a demonstration of the new technology: five flights in 30 days. Perseverance would then leave Ingenuity behind and begin studying ancient sedimentary rocks along the rim of Jezero Crater, which was home to a lake of water several billion years ago.

The device performed very well on the five flights. It worked so well that mission managers decided to take it out to explore the terrain ahead of the rover.

Over the next thousand days, Ingenuity continued to rise and fall, rise and fall. She faced problems along the way, making three emergency landings. It has survived dust storms and the cold Martian winter for which it was not designed. Engineers updated its software so it could choose its own landing sites.

“It’s almost an understatement to say it exceeded expectations,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s associate administrator for the science directorate.

The helicopter team had initially prepared for what they described as a 30-day run. It ended up turning into a never-ending marathon.

Tzanetos said they realized each day could be their last. The helicopter, however, always seemed to bounce back from any challenge and be doing well.

With the exception of a non-essential sensor that failed, “the rest of the subsystems, from the solar panels to the battery, have aged surprisingly well,” according to Tzanetos.

On January 18, during its 72nd flight, Ingenuity lost contact with Perseverance while descending. Communications were reestablished the following day. But a shadow in a photo sent a few days later revealed that a quarter of one of the rotor blades had broken off.

“There was an initial moment, obviously, of sadness when seeing that photo appear and appear on the screen, which makes it clear what happened,” said Tzanetos. “But this is quickly replaced by happiness, pride and a sense of celebration for what we have accomplished.”

Tzanetos noted that on Thursday night (25) it would be a thousand Martian days, also known as suns, since Ingenuity was launched on the surface of Mars by Perseverance. “He chose a very appropriate time to end the mission.”

Ingenuity was flying over terrain that Tzanetos described as some of the most challenging — not because of any obstacles, but because it was so monotonous, with few rocks or other features. The previous flight had ended in an emergency landing because the navigation system was having difficulty tracking its position.

The 72nd flight was intended to be a 30-second up and down to check that everything was working, but again the uneven terrain caused problems. “Due to navigation challenges, we had a rotor strike with the surface,” said Tzanetos. “This would have resulted in a power outage, which caused the loss of communication.”

With at least part of one of the blades broken, the helicopter would not be able to generate enough lift, and the rotor would be unbalanced, meaning it would likely fall apart if it tried to take off again.

“There are some lessons for us,” said Havard Grip, Ingenuity’s chief pilot. “We now know that this type of terrain can be a trap for a system like this.”

Grip said a high-resolution camera, capable of capturing more detail in even a monotonous landscape, would probably have helped.

The team will perform some final tests on Ingenuity’s systems and download remaining images and data into the helicopter’s memory.

NASA engineers are investigating what caused the communication interruption and whether the rotor blade hit the ground when Ingenuity landed.

Other helicopters to be sent to Mars are in the planning phase, including some that could accompany a mission to bring rock and soil samples that Perseverance has been collecting back to Earth. However, this sample collection mission, which faced technological and budgetary challenges, is being reviewed, and the helicopters may be scrapped.

“Ingenuity was based on theories,” Tzanetos said. “Now we have facts, and future aircraft designs will depend on all the data we collect from him.”