Final flight for NASA's Ingenuity

February 7, 2024

Ingenuity, NASA’s helicopter on Mars, has made its final flight.

Ingenuity helicopter
space
Mars

NASA’s helicopter on Mars, called Ingenuity, has made its final flight on the red planet.

Ingenuity

This small aircraft landed on Mars almost three years ago, inside the robotic rover, Perseverance.

And, in April 2021, it became the first helicopter to fly on another planet!

Since then, Ingenuity has helped NASA learn more about the surface of Mars by sending back photos of areas that are too dangerous for the robotic rover to explore—like sand dunes, or hard to reach areas of a large crater.

Ingenuity also helped engineers discover more about flying aircraft on other planets.

Compared to helicopter flights on Earth, flying on Mars comes with many challenges—one of the biggest being the planet’s atmosphere.

Even though we can't see it, or feel it, the atmosphere on Earth is more dense, or thicker, than on other planets.

Earth

When the blades of a helicopter spin, air moves, and this creates an upward force called lift.

lift

When there is enough force, the helicopter can take off.

The faster the blades spin, the greater the lift.

The atmosphere on Mars is a lot thinner, or less dense, than on Earth.

When a helicopter’s blades spin on Mars, the upward force, or lift, is not as strong as on Earth.

Earth

Mars

So, a helicopter might not be able to fly.

To solve this problem, NASA increased the speed of ingenuity’s blades, making them spin 10 times faster than a helicopter on Earth.

This provided Ingenuity with enough lift to take flight in Mars’ thinner, or less dense, atmosphere.

NASA originally planned for Ingenuity to fly just five times.

planned flights: 5

However, it turned out that it was able to do much more than everyone thought possible,

making an incredible 72 flights, instead!

actual flights: 72

flight time: 128.8 minutes

Flying as fast as 10 metres per second, and as high as 24 metres, Ingenuity provided unique aerial views of Mars.

speed: 10 meters per second

height: 24 meters

Despite all this success, a recent photo of the helicopter's shadow showed that it had a damaged blade, bringing an end to Ingenuity’s mission.

But the team at NASA are already developing the next generation of aircraft for exploring space, based on what the now-retired Ingenuity has taught them.

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Teaching Overview

Learning Points

Nasa’s helicopter on Mars, named Ingenuity, has taken its final flight.
The small helicopter was being used to help explore the planet.
The atmosphere of Mars makes it hard to fly aircraft there.

Curriculum Keywords

Ingenuity helicopter
space
Mars

Spark a Discussion

How many years had Ingenuity been flying on Mars?
What part of the helicopter was damaged?
What energy source gave Ingenuity the power to fly?

Credits

NASA
JPL-Caltech
ASU
MSSS

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