How this helicopter survived 1004 days on Mars, then disappeared...

Try Snatoms! A molecular modelling kit I invented where the atoms snap together.

CLARIFICATIONS:
- At 0:12, we say that ingenuity is 680g which is its weight on Mars. On Earth however, it weighs around 1800g.
-A Patreon supporter named Zeus pointed out that we were wrong about Perseverance's/Ingenuity's position on Mars. It is in the Northern Hemisphere and hence Mars would be getting closer to the Sun as it goes into winter.
- Ingenuity was on Mars for 1004 Earth days.

▀▀▀
A massive thank you to the team at JPL and especially Teddy Tzanetos, Travis Brown, Håvard Grip and DC Agle

▀▀▀
0:00 How Did Ingenuity Get To Mars?
3:23 Better Results, Bigger Expectations
6:15 Wobblecopter
7:48 Dust On Mars
9:41 What Is The Temperature On Mars?
11:54 Wake-Up Call
13:41 Android To The Rescue
16:22 Cosmic Rays
20:53 Dune and The Crash
25:26 The Next Generation

▀▀▀
References:

Images & Video:

Images and video from Perseverance and Ingenuity missions supplied by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Limiting Factor

▀▀▀
Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:

Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, Autodidactic Studios, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Greg Scopel, HydrochloRick, Juan Benet, Keith England, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, TTST, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, wolfee

▀▀▀
Directed by Henry van Dyck
Written by Henry van Dyck
Edited by Trenton Oliver
On-site Interviews by Jonny Hyman
Filming by Alex Gorosh
Produced by Rob Beasley Spence, Tori Brittain, Jonny Hyman, Henry van Dyck, Gabe Strong, Zoe Heron, and Derek Muller
Animated by Emma Wright and Mike Radjabov
Additional Research by Gabe Strong and Darius Garewal
Additional Editing by James Stuart
Thumbnail contributions by Ben Powell, Ren Hurley, Peter Sheppard, Gregor Čavlović and Henry van Dyck

Additional video/photos supplied by NASA JPL, Getty Images and Storyblocks
Music from Epidemic Sound

[CardinalTreehouse]

Derek: There's still one thing they haven't tried to reestablish connection

Me: Oh my god, they're sending the intern up

[tulaibhussain]

The fact they added that scrap from the wright brothers flight to Ginny is just, indescribably cool. Who could've known some primates from some random planet would go from gliders, to flying on another planet in just 2 lifetimes.

[sanahaskuranage]

The battery dying and resetting the clock is such a neat puzzle.

[gilliamdelauw]

During development: "Pff, absolute waste of money, you only get 80 million, be lucky we let your weight on the payload."
Sol 1024: "Where is Ginny? Is she Safe!? is She alright!? Divert the entire Perseverance to go check on her!"

[Haraseikusu]

>Crash landed
>Blades broken
>Continue to serve as a weather station
Truly prove that Masterpieces are usually being built from scraps

[KiwiCatherineJemma]

Designed to last for a minimum of 5 flights in 30 days. Completed 71 flights over more than 1, 000 days. Now THAT is what quality control, in design and build, and true competence in operation and software updates gets you. (And maybe a little bit of good luck too). Congratulations to the team.

[lukasritzer]

The oldest living person was born just 5 years after The Wright Brothers made their first sustained flight. Imagine growing up hearing about human flight as a brand new concept, and now today learning of flying on a different planet from a talking electronic screen that connects the entire world in an instant. Truly insane and awe inspiring

[SheenStars]

I watched this absolutely calmly like I would watch any other interesting engineering videos, but when it mentioned how Ginny carried the fabric from the first flight, I had to fight back my tears. I am so touched by how far we have come. Amazing storytelling. It reminded me of Dr. Stone.

[sharondesfor]

We had two members of the Ingenuity team at HeliExpo the year before it landed. They were given a two hour session in a mid sized conference room near the end of the day. Clearly HAI, the organizer, didn't expect the standing-room-only crowd that abandoned the convention floor. And I don't think anyone expected the number of attendees that stayed after show hours with question after question.

Ingenuity stole the hearts of the helicopter industry before it even arrived on Mars.

[AlextheLordofFire]

Imagine getting a phone call telling you there is a dust storm ON ANOTHER PLANET, and this is actually a serious issue you have to adress ASAP, and ends up cancelling the project you've been working in for weeks and creating problems you have to fix for the next month.

[Homobikerus]

This story deserves a WALL•E -style movie of its own! Built from leftovers to outlast every dream and keep the spirit high.

[pragyasingh]

Can't believe I’m 3 weeks late to this masterpiece 😭
Ginny’s journey - what a wild ride from a tech demo to a 71-flight legend. The way this little chopper defied the odds and kept flying... it’s like watching a sci-fi underdog story, but real. The problem-solving, the use of everyday parts to build something revolutionary—it’s honestly inspiring.

Ginny + Perseverance = the ultimate Mars power duo 🚁🤖
And now Ginny’s still up there, chillin’ as a weather station. Absolute rockstar.
Huge respect to the whole team behind this—creating history on a tighter budget than The Martian is just next-level. 💯🔥

[AlxM]

I never thought I'd feel so emotional about a little helicopter but here we are

That bit about there being a scrap of fabric from the Wright Flyer aboard Ingenuity really got me. Thank you to whoever at NASA thought of that tribute, and thanks to whoever allowed this little sample to be removed from the Flyer, which is itself a priceless historical artifact! Just think, the Wright brothers could never in their wildest dreams have imagined that someday a piece of the machine they hand-built would fly ON ANOTHER PLANET.

[Zaku]

I love that she still gets to contribute even with broken rotors. Being a weather station can be a really helpful.

[lennonpilkington]

All of the changes they kept making when they thought they were 'stumped' are incredible. How inspiring

[LMacNeill]

The thing that amazes me most is that something designed to last 30 Sols lasted over 1, 000 Sols due to the ingenuity (pun intended) of the team who ran the mission. They kept solving problem after problem and kept it going until the catastrophic failure of the blades. Beyond amazing!! Superb work!! I just love seeing people solve problems with limited resources -- it really showcases human creativity and intelligence. Thanks for making this video, Derek.

[erikhendrickson]

$80M budget is just mind-blowing to me. For comparison, *_Grant Theft Auto 5_* cost over $500M to develop.

[balok]

Remote repair MUST be added to these machines. Rotor & wheel replacement, orientation correction, even sample retrieval and instrumentation exchange... a portable service station.

[ShivamSharma-ghxd]

Hats off to the team flying Ingenuity! What an incredible, hardworking, and ingenuous group of people