- The Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s rotor blades had been broken throughout its 72nd flight on January 18, 2024, completely grounding the plane.
- Navigation system issues brought on the accident, because of the featureless terrain at a piece of Jezero Crater.
- The helicopter, initially scheduled for simply 5 flights, far exceeded expectations with 72 flights over almost three years, serving as a scout for the Perseverance rover.
Particulars emerge on the Ingenuity Mars helicopter accident
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter is the primary plane to conduct powered, managed flight on one other planet. It first took to Martian skies over Jezero Crater on April 19, 2021. And it went on to wildly exceed expectations with 71 further flights. Nonetheless, on January 18, 2024, the helicopter sustained severe harm to its rotor blades. This accident completely grounded the helicopter. And on December 11, 2024, NASA launched preliminary findings about what occurred, its first plane accident investigation on one other world. Engineers concluded that the rotor blade harm was because of a series of occasions that began with issues within the navigation techniques.
Håvard Grip of JPL was Ingenuity’s first pilot. He mentioned:
When operating an accident investigation from 100 million miles away, you don’t have any black bins or eyewitnesses. Whereas a number of eventualities are viable with the obtainable information, we’ve got one we consider is most definitely: Lack of floor texture gave the navigation system too little data to work with.
Ingenuity’s last flight
Ingenuity’s last flight was a quick vertical ascent and descent. It was completed primarily to take a look at the plane’s flight techniques after an emergency touchdown throughout the earlier flight. The helicopter climbed to 40 ft (12 meters), hovered for a couple of seconds and snapped some photographs. After 19 seconds within the air, it began descending at 3.3 ft per second (1 meter/second). Nonetheless, by the 32-second mark into its flight, the helicopter was again on the Martian floor however had halted all communication.
Engineers had been capable of reestablish communication with the helicopter a day later, on January 19, 2024. Over the next six days, they studied information from the plane. Photographs from its navigation digital camera confirmed the shadow of the rotor blades, confirming that no less than one rotor blade was badly broken. Different imaging from Perseverance later confirmed a rotor blade mendacity about 43 ft (13 meters) away.
What brought on the Ingenuity Mars helicopter accident?
Ingenuity’s laborious touchdown was because of an issue with its navigation techniques. It used a digital camera pointed downward for monitoring visible options on the floor. Software program on an onboard laptop analyzed these options – which modified in measurement and placement from picture to picture – to measure and observe the helicopter’s pace and course. The helicopter’s navigation techniques design was optimized for flat pebbly terrain, which was the case for the primary 5 flights.
However by flight 72, the helicopter had reached a piece of Jezero Crater which had steep, principally featureless sand ripples. The helicopter’s navigation system, because of this, couldn’t discover sufficient options to trace on the floor. The engineers mentioned:
Pictures taken after the flight point out the navigation errors created excessive horizontal velocities at landing. Within the most definitely state of affairs, the laborious affect on the sand ripple’s slope brought on Ingenuity to pitch and roll. The fast angle change resulted in hundreds on the fast-rotating rotor blades past their design limits, snapping all 4 of them off at their weakest level, about 1/3 of the best way from the tip. The broken blades brought on extreme vibration within the rotor system, ripping the rest of 1 blade from its root and producing an extreme energy demand that resulted in lack of communications.
NASA plans to launch a technical report about Ingenuity’s last flight in a couple of weeks.
The little Martian helicopter that might
When the Perseverance rover first landed in Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, Ingenuity was hooked up to the rover’s underside. Perseverance is nonetheless exploring the crater, beaming again a wealth of information in regards to the purple planet.
Ingenuity’s authentic mission was to reveal that it was doable to fly a remotely operated helicopter on Mars. The plan was for simply 5 check flights over 30 days. As a substitute, it surpassed expectations by performing 72 flights in virtually three years. In all, the helicopter gathered over two hours of time within the air, flying 14 instances farther than initially deliberate.
Throughout its prolonged mission, Ingenuity operated as an aerial scout for the Perseverance scientists and rover drivers. Scientists had initially deliberate to function the helicopter’s 5 preliminary flights throughout the Martian spring. However when winter set in, the plane’s authentic configuration was unable to face up to brutally chilly temperatures. In consequence, engineers reconfigured the helicopter to function in winter.
Though Ingenuity is presently grounded, it continues some operations. The helicopter now transmits weekly climate information again to Perseverance. It additionally sends aviation electronics data, which engineers are utilizing to design the following era Martian plane.
Listed here are Ingenuity flight highlights in a video commemorating its fiftieth flight.
Future Martian plane
Sometime, a brand new helicopter will hover in Martian skies. It could possibly be the Mars Chopper rotorcraft, a brand new Mars helicopter presently on the drafting board. As presently designed, it’s about 20 instances heavier than Ingenuity and able to transporting a number of kilos of kit. It might be capable to fly autonomously as much as two miles per day (over 3 km). Compared, Ingenuity’s longest distance was 2,310 ft (704 meters).
A video exhibiting animation of the longer term Mars Chopper rotorcraft. This can be a idea for a future plane that might sometime entry elements of Mars which are unreachable by rovers.
Backside line: Preliminary findings from NASA point out the Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s accident on January 18, 2024, was because of issues with its navigation techniques.
