The NASA helicopter Ingenuity on Mars made the first powered controlled flights by an aircraft on a planet other than Earth.[1][2] It first flew on April 19, 2021, after landing on February 18 attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover.[3] Ingenuity weighs 1.8 kilograms (4.0 lb) and is 49 cm (19 in) tall. It is powered by six lithium-ion solar-charged batteries.[4] It was built and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a field center of NASA. Ingenuity was designed to fly five times in 30 Mars sols (31 Earth days), but operated far above expectations, making its 72nd and final flight on January 18, 2024 (UTC), 977 Mars sols (1,004 Earth days) after its first flight. Its rotor blades were damaged on the last flight's landing, causing NASA to retire the craft.[5][6] Mission engineers determined that Ingenuity’s navigation system could not provide accurate data during the flight over featureless terrain, resulting in an off-balance hard landing.[7]
- ^ AFP Staff Writers (April 19, 2021). "Ingenuity helicopter successfully flew on Mars: NASA". Mars Daily. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
- ^ Palca, Joe (April 19, 2021). "Success! NASA's Ingenuity Makes First Powered Flight On Mars". National Public Radio. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
- ^ Clarke, Stephen (May 14, 2018). "Helicopter to accompany NASA's next Mars rover to Red Planet". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
- ^ "Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Landing Press Kit" (PDF). NASA. January 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
- ^ "After Three Years on Mars, NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends". Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- ^ NASA Science Live: Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Tribute & Legacy, January 31, 2024, retrieved February 1, 2024
- ^ "NASA Performs First Aircraft Accident Investigation on Another World". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved December 12, 2024.
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