The Ingenuity miniature helicopter, which in 2021 became the first engine-powered machine on an alien planet to soar into the Martian atmosphere, has ended its mission. It was announced by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), according to which the helicopter can no longer fly.
“I have a bittersweet announcement: Ingenuity has made its final flight to Mars,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in video uploaded on social networks.
Ingenuity – Czech for Ingenuity – had problems communicating with Earth in recent days, NASA said. Additionally, one of the carbon fiber rotor blades appeared damaged in the footage from the red planet. The images were taken by the Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars together with a helicopter on February 18, 2021. The aircraft, weighing only 1.8 kilograms, then took off for the first time on April 19 of the same year.
NASA originally planned a 30-day mission for Ingenuity, during which the machine would make five short takeoffs. But in the end, the helicopter worked for almost three years and flew into the Martian atmosphere 72 times. In total, within these flights, he reached fourteen times the distance that was originally planned.
The small helicopter was powered by two counter-rotating two-bladed propellers with a diameter of 1.2 meters located one above the other. He took energy from batteries charged by solar panels. It is not equipped with scientific instruments, and its only task was to test the possibility of using similar flying machines in the future to investigate the surface of extraterrestrial bodies.
2024-01-26 08:56:53
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