Mars Hosts A Damaged Heilcopter Where A Lake Once Existed .There is a helicopter on Mars surface that will never fly again. As humans, we do not always get to choose who or, indeed, what we form an emotional connection with. Perhaps that is why hearing the news of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s mission ending feels a little like hearing about a beloved celebrity passing away.
Ingenuity is not exactly Mathew Perry in terms of its popularity, but you cannot deny its contributions to humanity’s spaceflight ambitions. It hitched a ride to Mars inside the belly of the Perseverance Rover and landed there on February 18, 2021. Its first flight happened on April 19 that year, making history as the first time-powered controlled flight has been achieved on a world that is not the Earth.
It was originally designed as a technology demonstration that would perform up to five experimental flights over a period of 30 days. At the time, achieving that much would have been a massive accomplishment. But nearly three years later, the rotorcraft continued to perform a total of 72 flights, and it flew more than 14 times farther than planned and logged a total of two hours of flight time. All this while, it was acting as an aerial scout for the Perseverance rover. Perhaps, that would have been a better name for the helicopter.
But all things, good or bad, have to come to an end. The Ingenuity team at NASA was planning to make a short vertical hop on January 18 to determine its exact location after a previous flight ended in an emergency landing. Telemetry data from the helicopter showed that it achieved its maximum altitude of 12 metres and hovered there for 4.5 seconds before it started coming down at a speed of about one metre per second.
But just when it was about a metre above the surface, it lost contact with Perseverance. And since the rover acts as a relay between the helicopter and Earth, it meant that mission controllers lost communications with Ingenuity. They got back in touch the very next day, and more information about the flight was relayed back to controllers on Earth.
Originally designed for a technology demonstration with plans for up to five experimental flights over 30 days, Ingenuity surpassed expectations . Nearly three years later , it executed a remarkable 72 flights over 14 days times the intented distance and logging two hours of flight time . Acting as an aerial scout for the perseverance rover , its remarkable achievements led one to consider “scout” as a fitting alternative name for helicopter . However , all journeys , whether positive or challenging , must eventually conclude.
