NASA Reviews Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mishap: Failure to Accurately Assess Terrain Around Crater Leads to Hard Landing and Tumble

The previously highly anticipated Ingenuity Mars Helicopter experienced a mishap during its 72nd flight mission, resulting in a subsequent loss of contact. With photos taken by the Perseverance rover, NASA confirmed that Ingenuity's coaxial counter-rotating rotors were broken.

From the photos, it's evident that the rotors were not just broken but had also been flung several meters away on the Martian surface, indicating that the rotors were still spinning at high speed upon impact.

A recent blog post by NASA revealed a review of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's mishap. According to NASA's investigation, the main issue encountered by Ingenuity was the visual navigation system's failure to accurately assess the environment when confronted with extreme terrain.

The following image shows the bent tips of the rotor blades that did not fly off:

The red circle indicates the rotor blade that was flung away:

The current main area of activity for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and the Perseverance rover is the Jezero Crater on Mars, a large and recessed impact crater with significant undulations in certain areas.

Ingenuity's visual navigation system captures and tracks ground images to assess flight altitude and other parameters. Therefore, if the visual navigation system cannot find reference points to track based on surface features during landing, a normal landing becomes impossible.

Ultimately, due to the inability to accurately track surface features and assess altitude, Ingenuity effectively crash-landed while its rotors were still spinning at high speed, leading to a tumble. The rotors did not stop spinning, and the enormous kinetic energy caused the detached rotor blade to be flung away.

Despite being gradually buried by Martian dust, Ingenuity has already completed its intended mission. Through the operational data from Ingenuity, NASA engineers are designing better explorers, preparing for future missions.

Introduction to the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter:

Ingenuity marks humanity's first attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet. Accompanying the Perseverance rover to Mars, Ingenuity managed to achieve flight despite the thin Martian atmosphere.

One of Ingenuity's main objectives was to validate the feasibility of aerodynamic flight on Mars. Other tasks included scouting terrain to provide navigational aids for the Perseverance rover.