Perseverance Rover identifies damaged blades of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter while it makes final spin

Ingenuity Mars helicopter finally rotated its damaged blade. A compact robotic aircraft developed by NASA for operations on Mars, has suffered damage to its rotor blades during its 72nd flight on the Red Planet. Images captured by the Perseverance rover's main cameras on February 4, 2024, clearly show the visibly damaged blades. The damage occurred as a result of rotational movements in the Martian sand after tough landing.

Despite being decommissioned, Ingenuity can still capture and transmit photographs through radio communication. The rover has approached the helicopter to take initial images from a distance, and closer photographs will be captured to assess the extent of the damage. Mine rendered images included in this video provide a visual representation of the damaged blades. This unfortunate incident indicates that Ingenuity may no longer be able to follow the Perseverance rover in its future endeavors.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Animation, visuals, image processing and renders made by iGadgetPro

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Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
0:16 - Ingenuity's latest video from Mars
0:35 - Perseverance's images of damaged blades of Ingenuity
1:18 - Visualisation of Ingenuity's damaged rotor blades
1:48 - Perseverance's Mastcam-Z left image of broken Ingenuity Helicopter
2:17 - Credits

#Ingenuity #Mars #helicopter #damage #blades

[marcosaltran]

To me, it is much better if the videos have only text and the incredible sound track!
A big hug from Brazil!

[ericbrooksby]

I got my drone stuck in a tree once. So I know the feeling.

[martinhunt]

Always enjoy your excellent Mars mission updates!

[synthyawylder]

As a UAV (drone) pilot, I can confirm several things about what seemed to have happened to Ingenuity.

My UAVs also use a visual camera-based system to help with navigation & obstacle avoidance, & have both a color camera, & a number of lower-resolution black & white cameras, although they also have the benefit of having access to dozens of GPS satellites to aid in control & positioning when farther away from any objects - On Mars, no GPS satellites, or magnetic compass...

Relatively featureless surfaces can & will cause confusion with the internal control system, as a result of conflicts between the IMU & what the camera sees, & this can & will likely cause stability & control problems.

Of course, here on Earth, there is virtually no signal lag, & a human is available to compensate or to take manual control in any situation in real-time - Ingenuity, being so far from Earth, had no such real-time human control available due to the many minutes of signal lag between Mars, Earth, & back to Mars, & had to rely upon its own internal control systems; as advanced as they are, simply can't compare with a human at direct real-time control.

Carbon-fiber composite propeller or rotor blades are incredibly strong for their light weight, but they are also very brittle, & likely even more so, in Mars' relatively colder temperatures, & at the speed of rotation that Ingenuity's rotors had to turn to fly, having them strike anything at all, even for an instant, would result in the damage indicated.

Here on Earth, damaged propeller or rotor blades are easily & quickly replaced, but so far away on Mars... not so much!

I'm so sorry to hear of Ingenuity's accident, & I've been cheering with every flight & scientific breakthrough accomplishment on Mars!

Ingenuity went far above & beyond what was ever designed or expected - certainly a long string of successes which all of us can honor & celebrate! \o/

[ARWest-bpyb]

Ginny far exceeded our wildest expectations, and paved the way for Dragonfly to explore Titan!👍👍

[jasonpatterson]

Awesome little copter and an amazing set of missions. My only thought is that I would really love to see them try to fly it a 73rd time. Yes it's out of balance, but we don't know by how much, and we might be able to learn from how it does or doesn't succeed. We won't learn much of anything from a stationary system on the ground that is designed to take pictures from above, and it will soon be out of range of Perseverance anyway. Give it a go while they can!

[owenmerrick]

Give it full RPM and see what happens, get it away from sand....but Perseverance must be a long way away. A great mission!

[Saarngittik]

RIP Ingenuity, you had made an incredible job !
Good bye little boy !...

[fredgarv]

The woman in charge of this was Mimi Aung, an amazing woman. I will never forget her enthusiasm when that thing first flew. Her parents were from burma or thailand and although born here she moved back there with her parents at age 2. Then came back here and got her degrees.

[realrippernow]

give us more info on the Mars rover, igadgetPro

[farrider]

Who tf decided landing among the sand dunes !?

[aloisiorosa]

Ele ainda pode sambar um pouco para remover a poeira de seu painel solar! E ainda dá para estudar a duração de seus materiais! E tirar fotos! Fantastic Strong Ingenuity!

[neilbain]

It's a severe blow. There'll only be so much Ingenuity can do before it's out of range. But then there's limited photography you can take from where it is anyway.

[davidlang]

There it will sit until the winds of Mars buries it forever in the sand dunes.

[Kim_Jong_Un_]

It can be replaced. It's just the blade's that needs replacement . There are service centres

[radikabrikos]

Thanks to Spielberg for the new Mars series

[KevynJacobs]

I <3 Ingenuity. You did good, kid! Thank you for your service.

[aloisiorosa]

Parece que perdeu comunicação devido a explosões solares! Mas ele ainda consegue dançar um pouco! E parece que a fibra de carbono resiste bem em Marte! As baterias e as câmeras também estão funcionando bem! Isso é fantástico!

[josephmoore]

I wonder if perseverance can pick it up and bring it with her?

[bradwinter]

This voice sounds like pablo meyers from steve brule LOL