Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and AeroVironment have revealed the cause of the crash of the first Mars rover, Ingenuity, on January 18, 2024, which resulted in damage to the blades. The scientists also presented a concept for their next helicopter, which will explore the «red planet» from the sky — Mars Chopper.
Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and AeroVironment have revealed the cause of the crash of the first Mars rover, Ingenuity, on January 18, 2024, which resulted in damage to the blades. The scientists also presented a concept for their next helicopter, which will explore the «red planet» from the sky — Mars Chopper.
In January, NASA scientists announced that Ingenuity — the first helicopter ever to take to the skies of another planet — had suffered damage to its rotor blades and would no longer be able to fly. It had completed its three-year mission to Mars, far exceeding its developers’ expectations.
Now scientists have detailed what led to this. The rover’s visual navigation system, which was designed to track textural features on the Martian surface, was confused by a featureless stretch of undulating sandy terrain, leading to an incorrect speed estimate that led to a hard landing.
Based on remote data, including photographs taken after the flight, researchers believe that «navigation errors created high horizontal speeds during landing,» which likely led to Ingenuity experiencing a «strong impact on the slope of a sandy undulating surface,» causing it to roll and sway.
NASA engineers initially thought that Ingenuity’s rotor blades were damaged after contact with the Martian surface during the crash. They now believe that they broke off because «the rapid change in course placed a load on the rapidly rotating rotor blades beyond their design limits.» Part of one of the rotor blades was about 15 meters from where the rover finally came to rest.
However, except for a propeller failure late in the mission, Ingenuity is generally in good shape and could still be useful. Scientists say Ingenuity still has «about 20 years of memory» left on board, meaning it could continue to take measurements and images every sunny day on Mars.
However, it may not be able to transmit this data to Earth. The Perseverance rover, with which Ingenuity maintains radio communication and sends its data to the mission team, is currently 3 km away from the helicopter. Ingenuity may soon lose contact with the ground control center.
«I think that within the next month we will lose contact forever, either until we return in 20 years with astronauts, or until we return to return samples,» NASA believes.
Scientists have already unveiled a conceptual design for their next helicopter to explore Mars, the Mars Chopper. A short animated video shows NASA’s concept for a vehicle that will fly over the «red planet».
The helicopter, which is still in the concept and design stages, is intended for Mars exploration, but its larger size and multiple rotors mean it will also be able to carry scientific instruments to study terrain that rovers cannot reach.
