The Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, flew again in Mars for the 72nd time on January 18, 2024.
It however, lost contact with its Perseverance rover while still in that flight.
It successfully made a flight to an altitude of 40 feet, but lost communication just before touching down..
NASA said it regained communication with Ingenuity through Perseverance rover two days later only to discover that it landed, but its rotor blade is broken.
A flight without the full complement of rotor blades is impossible. Lift cannot be achieved.
It flew for the 34th time on 23 November, 2022.
That was its first flight after a hazard avoidance software was added to its cameras to help it navigate and land in a safe terrain.
With Martian winter setting in then, the future of this little rotor that cost $80 million to build was uncertain.
It surpassed the expectations of NASA when it flew for the 10th time in Mars on 24 July, 2021.
It flew for 2.45 minutes, covering a distance of 310 feet at an altitude of 30 feet.
Its sixth flight on 27 May, 2021 was marred by what NASA said was a navigation timing error.
A camera it carries underneath sends images to a computer guiding its flight.
One image was missed and subsequent ones were received with the wrong timestamps by the computer about 52 seconds into the flight.
The commands were, therefore, out of time, causing the helicopter to jerk, roll and pitch.
Ingenuity however, managed to land safely.
On 30 April, 2021, NASA extended its mission in Mars by 30 days.
It has already flown five times in that planet.
This last time was on 7 May, 2021 for about 420 feet.
Its first flight was on 19 April, 2021, making it the first powered, controlled flight in another planet.
As if to prove that was not a fluke, it successfully flew again on 22 April, 2021 and on 25 April, 2021 recording a total flight time of 80 seconds.
Its fourth flight was on 30 April, 2021.
The first flight was earlier scheduled to take place 12:30 pm local Mars Solar Time, about 16:54 WAT, on Sunday, 11 April, 2021 but was postponed till 14 April, 2021.
The new date became impossible as its flight control software had to be modified and re-installed into the helicopter to be able to undertake the challenge.
NASA then gave a new date that the flight will possibly take place as 19 April, 2021.
The Perseverance rover carrying the helicopter landed on Martian ground on 18 February, 2021 but took time to deploy it to the ground on 3 April, 2021.
Since the Ingenuity helicopter is solar-powered, it has to gain as much sunlight as it could and so the flight was delayed till at least 8 April, 2021 by NASA.
With blades, each 4 feet (1.2 m) tip to tip, in two small rotors and power of just 350 watts, its blades need to spin up to 2,500 rpm to be able to lift off.
Its only payload are two small cameras.
Flights in conditions without an atmosphere are very difficult because air pressure is needed to attain lift.
The flight was planned for 40 seconds above the Jezero Crater in Mars to demonstrate that a powered flight is possible in another planet.
Experts were concerned on the impact of the extreme weather conditions on the helicopter weighing just 4 lbs (1.8 kg).
The surface temperature on Mars can be as low as -90 oC (-130 oF) at night and hardly above 70 oF by day.
With a successful 21st flight on 11 March, 2022 NASA had extended its mission to September, 2022.
However, Ingenuity surpassed expectations as it flew in Mars for nearly three years.
photo credit: nasa
