Ingenuity (helicopter)

Ingenuity
Part of Mars 2020
Ingenuity at Wright Brothers Field on April 6, 2021, its third day of deployment on Mars
Type	Extraterrestrial autonomous UAV helicopter
Serial no.	IGY (civil registration)
Owner	NASA
Manufacturer	Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Specifications
Dimensions	121 cm × 49 cm × 52 cm (48 in × 19 in × 20 in)
Dry mass	1.8 kilograms (4.0 lb)[1]
Communication	Zigbee transponder with base station on Perseverance
Power	6 Solar-charged Sony VTC4 Li ion batteries; typical motor input power: 350 watt[2]
Instruments
Cameras × 2 Inertial sensors Laser altimeter
History
Deployed	3 April 2021 (2021-04-03) from Perseverance
First flight	19 April 2021, 07:34 UTC (to and from Wright Brothers Field)
Last flight	18 January 2024 (to and from Airfield Chi (χ) in Valinor Hills)
Flights	72
Flight time	2 hr 8 min 55 sec, cumulative
Travelled	Horizontal: 17.242 km (10.714 mi) on Mars Vertical: max. 24 m (79 ft) Data from NASA Mars Helicopter Flight Log Maximum speed: 22.4 mph (36.0 km/h, 19.5 kn)
Fate	Retired due to sustained rotor blade damage[4]
Location	Jezero crater, Mars[3]
NASA Mars helicopters
Mars Sample Recovery Helicopters →

Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny, is an autonomous NASA helicopter that operated on Mars from 2021 to 2024 as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Ingenuity made its first flight on April 19, 2021, demonstrating that flight is possible in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and becoming the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight. It was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with AeroVironment, NASA's Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center with some components supplied by Lockheed Martin Space, Qualcomm, and SolAero.

Ingenuity was delivered to Mars on February 18, 2021, attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover, which landed at Octavia E. Butler Landing near the western rim of the 45 km-wide (28 mi) Jezero crater. Because radio signals take between five and 20 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars, depending on the planets' positions, it could not be controlled directly in real time but flew autonomously to execute flight plans designed and sent to it by JPL.

Originally intended to make only five flights, Ingenuity completed 72 flights in nearly three years. The five planned flights were part of a 30-sol technology demonstration intended to prove its airworthiness with flights of up to 90 seconds at altitudes ranging from 3–5 m (10–16 ft). Following this demonstration, JPL designed a series of operational flights to explore how aerial scouts could help explore Mars and other worlds. In this operational role, Ingenuity scouted areas of interest for the Perseverance rover, improved navigational techniques, and explored the limits of its flight envelope. Ingenuity's performance and resilience in the harsh Martian environment greatly exceeded expectations, allowing it to perform far more flights than were initially planned. On January 18, 2024, Ingenuity's rotor blades were damaged while landing on its 72nd flight, permanently grounding the helicopter. NASA announced the end of its mission one week later. Ingenuity had flown for a total of two hours, eight minutes and 48 seconds over 1,004 days, covering more than 17 kilometres (11 mi).