After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends/

21 comments

Best helicopter ever. What a phenomenal feat of engineering, management, and scientific vision! That it flew at all was outright wonderful. That it became a new tool to continue to help a larger mission was downright amazing.
Great work NASA, engineers, scientists, and leaders. You've exceeded expectations once again.
Good bye little one!
-Im still here! I just hurt my wing
Rest in peace, you were the best
-i'm not dead, just give me a lift!
We'll always remember you for your accomplishments
-Yay! Let's go home and tell everyone. My battery is getting low. Hello? Hello?
- As always, relevant XKCD.
  
  "Slightly worse" xckd
- "Bring out your dead!"
  "Got one here."
  "I'm not dead!"
  "You will be in a minute."
  "Look, I'm fine. I'm happyyyyy!"
  Something like that anyway.
Well done little copter, you did us proud.
you did good little one
RIP to a real one
- Why rip? Did it crash?
  
  Rtfa. It's literally the second sentence.
  imagery of its Jan. 18 flight sent to Earth this week indicates one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing, and it is no longer capable of flight.
  
  https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends/
  Its rotors were damaged on its last landing and it is now incapable of flight though it is still in communication with NASA.
RIP
- Nah he's still standing guard 🦾
F
I wonder if they'll try to get Perseverance close enough to get some photos to analyze what happened. I was looking at the Map on the mission page and it looks like it's in an area of sand dunes so maybe a little risky to try and go through that.
Side note: If you google "mars ingenuity" you can click on the little guy and see him flying around mars.

21 comments