The crash occurred earlier this year. During its final flight on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter broke down. The mission, originally planned to last 30 days, far exceeded expectations. Instead of the planned five flights, the helicopter completed 72. However, the space agency didn’t understand what went wrong on that fateful day—until now.
A legacy for posterity. Ingenuity began as the first helicopter to fly on another planet. It was designed as a technology demonstrator to perform up to five experimental flights on Mars over 30 days.
However, it surpassed all expectations by operating for nearly three years, completing 72 flights, spending more than two hours in the air, and covering distances 30 times greater than planned. This nearly 4-pound helicopter, built with low-cost commercial components, marked a significant milestone in planetary aeronautics.
D-Day. On Jan. 18, 2024, Ingenuity made its final flight—a brief vertical ascent intended to test its ascent systems and capture images of the terrain. The helicopter reached an altitude of 40 feet and began its descent. However, a malfunction in its navigation system prevented it from recognizing features on the ground.
While landing on a sand slope at high horizontal speed, the helicopter suffered an impact that severely damaged its rotor blades, causing excessive vibrations and a temporary loss of communication.
The research. NASA’s study will go down in history as the first investigation of an aircraft crash on another planet. The research determined that the lack of texture on the Martian surface—characterized by ripples of sand with no visual cues—disoriented Ingenuity’s navigation system.
With hundreds of millions of miles separating the crash site from Earth, the investigation relied on limited data, with no black box or eyewitness observations. Initially, experts thought the blades had hit the ground directly. Still, they concluded that the damage was caused by bending loads generated during the crash landing. Engineers determined that the helicopter had exceeded its design limits and simply reached the point of failure.
Fatal landing. The situation caused speed estimation errors that resulted in the helicopter landing with significant and fatal lateral movement. The excessive loads on the rotor blades caused them to break at their weakest point. Instantaneous vibrations and high energy consumption culminated in the end of the flight mission.
Contributions. One surprising detail is that, although Ingenuity is permanently grounded, the helicopter continues to transmit weather and avionics data to the Perseverance rover, providing valuable information for future Mars missions.
Its success has also inspired more advanced designs, such as the Mars Chopper—an autonomous helicopter concept 20 times heavier than Ingenuity. It will be capable of carrying scientific equipment and exploring remote locations on Mars.
Ultimately, Ingenuity’s groundbreaking performance demonstrated the feasibility of aerial exploration on the Red Planet and set new standards for future missions. Even challenges—and failures—help expand the understanding of technological possibilities on other worlds.
Image | NASA
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