Ingenuity | |
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Part of Mars 2020 | |
![]() Ingenuity at Wright Brothers Field on April 6, 2021, its third day of deployment on Mars | |
Type | Extraterrestrial autonomous UAV helicopter |
Serial no. | IGY (civil registration) |
Owner | NASA |
Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Specifications | |
Dimensions | 121 cm × 49 cm × 52 cm (48 in × 19 in × 20 in) |
Dry mass | 1.8 kilograms (4.0 lb)[1] |
Communication | Zigbee transponder with base station on Perseverance |
Power | 6 Solar-charged Sony VTC4 Li ion batteries; typical motor input power: 350 watt[2] |
Instruments | |
| |
History | |
Deployed |
|
First flight |
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Last flight |
|
Flights | 72 |
Flight time | 2 hr 8 min 55 sec, cumulative |
Travelled |
Data from NASA Mars Helicopter Flight Log
|
Fate | Retired due to sustained rotor blade damage[4] |
Location | Jezero crater, Mars[3] |
NASA Mars helicopters | |
Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny, is an autonomous NASA helicopter that operated on Mars from 2021 to 2024 as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Ingenuity made its first flight on April 19, 2021, demonstrating that flight is possible in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and becoming the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight. It was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with AeroVironment, NASA's Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center with some components supplied by Lockheed Martin Space, Qualcomm, and SolAero.
Ingenuity was delivered to Mars on February 18, 2021, attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover, which landed at Octavia E. Butler Landing near the western rim of the 45 km-wide (28 mi) Jezero crater. Because radio signals take between five and 20 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars, depending on the planets' positions, it could not be controlled directly in real time but flew autonomously to execute flight plans designed and sent to it by JPL.
Originally intended to make only five flights, Ingenuity completed 72 flights in nearly three years. The five planned flights were part of a 30-sol technology demonstration intended to prove its airworthiness with flights of up to 90 seconds at altitudes ranging from 3–5 m (10–16 ft). Following this demonstration, JPL designed a series of operational flights to explore how aerial scouts could help explore Mars and other worlds. In this operational role, Ingenuity scouted areas of interest for the Perseverance rover, improved navigational techniques, and explored the limits of its flight envelope. Ingenuity's performance and resilience in the harsh Martian environment greatly exceeded expectations, allowing it to perform far more flights than were initially planned. On January 18, 2024, Ingenuity's rotor blades were damaged while landing on its 72nd flight, permanently grounding the helicopter. NASA announced the end of its mission one week later. Ingenuity had flown for a total of two hours, eight minutes and 48 seconds over 1,004 days, covering more than 17 kilometres (11 mi).
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