The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Ingenuity helicopter is now too damaged to fly. Nevertheless, this historic spacecraft captured mesmerizing images of the Martian desert before its last flight.
On its 72nd flight, the small experimental helicopter broke at least one propeller and damaged a propeller tip after a “rough” landing in a rocky area. But on its 70th flight, Ingeniuty photographed the Martian landscape you can see below.
The image shows sand dunes. The rocky ridges of the mountains are visible in the distance. In the upper left corner, the leg of the helicopter is visible.
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Ingenuity captured this image 12 meters above the ground on December 22, 2023. Its last flight took place a few weeks after this date.
These Martian sand dunes in the image are probably what doomed Ingenuity. The helicopter is oriented by software that tracks the movement of objects like rocks. But as the space agency explains, the surface of the Red Planet is mostly “featureless”, meaning it’s hard for the cameras to find anything distinctive.
“As the distinctive features in the terrain diminish, it becomes harder for Ingenuity to successfully maneuver around them. The team believes that the relatively featureless terrain in the area was the main reason for the anomalous landing.”
“This remarkable helicopter flew farther and higher than we ever imagined”
Nevertheless, the Ingenuity mission lasted almost three years with great success. Ingenuity became the first spacecraft to achieve powered controlled flight on another planet. NASA engineers hoped it would prove that flight on Mars was possible, and that it could fly perhaps five times.
Ingeniuty made 72 flights.
He became a pioneer. He became a planetary explorer. Future exploration of Mars and the search for traces of life once thought to have existed on the planet will surely involve flight vehicles, and these vehicles will owe a lot to Ingenuity. After all, this helicopter proved that flight is possible on a planet like Mars, with its thin atmosphere.
Announcing Ingenuity’s final flight, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: “This remarkable helicopter flew farther and higher than we could have imagined and helped NASA do what it does best: make the impossible possible.”
