Battered rotor ends Mars helicopter’s mission

Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which made history by achieving the first powered flight on another world, has officially ended its nearly three-year mission after sustaining rotor damage during its last outing, the space agency said Thursday.

The tissue-box sized aircraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet under the belly of the Perseverance rover, first lifted off the surface on April 19, 2021.

Originally intended only to prove flight was possible in the ultra-thin Martian atmosphere through five test runs, Ingenuity went on to be deployed a total of 72 times, logging more than two hours of flight time in short hops.

“The Ingenuity absolutely shattered our paradigm of exploration, introducing this new dimension of aerial mobility,” Lori Glaze, the director of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division told reporters Thursday.

Its mission evolved to act as an aerial scout to assist its wheeled companion in searching for signs of ancient microbial life from billions of years ago when Mars was much wetter and warmer than today.

Ingenuity’s longevity surpassed all expectations, defying challenges including dust storms, treacherous terrain, a dead sensor and frigid conditions.

Designed to operate in springtime, its solar-powered heating system was unable to remain on throughout the night in winter, which led to the flight computer freezing over and forced engineers to devise new protocols.

“It is bittersweet that I must announce that Ingenuity, the little helicopter that could ... has now taken its last flight on Mars,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson in a video message.

While the helicopter, which weighs around two kilogrammes, remains upright and in communication with mission control, images from its last flight on Jan 18 indicate ‘one or more’ of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing, meaning it is no longer capable of flight.

Nasa unexpectedly lost and then reestablished contact following the final flight, though the relief for space enthusiasts turned out to be short-lived.

The broken blade seems to have collided with the surface of Mars during landing, Ingenuity project manager at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Teddy Tzanetos told reporters, cleaving off ‘the last 25 per cent of the length’ of the appendage.