NASA ’s Ingenuity was the first ever fly vehicle operated on another planet . It truly was a wonder , and every flight outperformed the hope of its designers – but on January 18 , 2024 , the little helicopter that could had an chance event that broughtan end to its career .

Engineers from NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and AeroVironment are completing a elaborated assessment of what went wrong that Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , making this the first aircraft accident investigation on another man . The probe has concluded that an issue with the sailing organisation was to blame . It ’s likely that the system did not furnish accurate datum , conduct to a concatenation of issue that ended the lick sprightliness of cleverness .

On its last flight , the helicopter soared to a tiptop of 12 beat ( 40 groundwork ) , hovering in home , and snapping photos of the sandy ground below . At 19 seconds into the flight , Ingenuitybegan its descent – 13 seconds subsequently , it was on the surface , but had sustained harm to its rotors .

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple. A fragment of its rotor is far to the left of the image

The hard fall probably caused the rotor to break.Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS

The relatively featureless ground was in all likelihood its downfall . Without physical object to track , the pilotage system did n’t make out its exact perspective , leading to a dramatic impact .

“ When play an accident investigation from 100 million miles away , you do n’t have any black boxes or eyewitness , ” Ingenuity ’s first airplane pilot , Håvard Grip of JPL , enunciate in astatement . “ While multiple scenario are viable with the available datum , we have one we believe is most likely : Lack of surface grain gave the navigation system too piddling information to work with . ”

Despite no longer being mobile , Ingenuity continues to transmit hebdomadal update on the weather and avionics , which are important for succeeding fomite designs . ingeniousness was only supposed to work for five flights over a menstruation of 30 sidereal day , designed with cheap off - the - shelf materials just to show that such an approach could mould .

This graphic depicts the most likely scenario for the hard landing of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 72nd and final flight on Jan. 18, 2024. High horizontal velocities at touchdown resulted in a hard impact on a sand ripple, which caused Ingenuity to pitch and roll, damaging its rotor blades. Senidn part of the blade flying away.

This is the likely scenario that ended Ingenuity’s flights.Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In the end , it work over almost three years , took 72 flying , flew 30 times far than intended , and went faster and higher than it was expected to go . A testament to the concentrated work and endowment ofthe teamthat build it .

“ Because Ingenuity was contrive to be low-priced while demand huge amounts of computer power , we became the first mission to take flight commercial off - the - ledge cellphone central processing unit in deep blank , ” said Teddy Tzanetos , cleverness ’s labor manager . “ We ’re now approaching four years of uninterrupted operations , suggesting that not everything needs to be bigger , heavier , and radiation - indurate to work in the abrasive Martian environs . ”

The investigation results were presented at theAmerican Geophysical Union Meeting , where Tzanetos share details about the possible heir of Ingenuity : the Mars Chopper rotorcraft . That vehicle will be able-bodied to contain several pound of scientific equipment and travel up to 3 kilometers ( 2 miles ) in a mean solar day .