TheCunningLinguists
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TL;DR: The device lost its connection to the mothership and fumbled its landing on its last flight.
During its last flight, Ingenuity reached a maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters) and hovered above the surface of Mars for 4.5 seconds before starting its descent at a velocity of 3.3 feet per second (1 meter per second), according to NASA. Right before touching down on the Martian surface, however, Ingenuity lost contact with the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance to relay its communications to Earth, using shiny antennas to exchange data at about 100 kilobits per second. The data is routed from the Ingenuity-facing antenna to the rover’s main computer before being transferred to Earth by way of an orbiting spacecraft.
Without the help of ground control, Ingenuity may have fumbled its landing, resulting in the damage to its blades. NASA is still investigating the cause of the communication blackout.
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-mars-helicopter-ingenuity-breaks-blade-mission-end-1851198338
CaptainPawfulFox
glovelyday
Congratulations to all involved in the mission. Truly an amazing, historic achievement. Percival Lowell and Robert Goddard would be gobsmacked by what you've done, as am I.
albester
Was Wolowitz trying to impress a chick?
NKato
Someday, we will find that drone on Mars, and it will be recovered, and enshrined in a museum.
alenfishman
Oh cool, when I play a game in the future about Mars, and I see a broken drone... I'll get the reference now.
Targe0
This means Perseverance will now be on its own, it's got to leave its little travel buddy behind. Though, I wonder how long Ingenuity will stay internally functional for. Because as long as it still receives power, it will likely keep its internals running. But without Perseverance to act as a relay, there will be no way for it to call back to earth.
ruint
It has friends in orbit, who are how it usually talks to us.
Besides, how can Percy ever be alone, with all of our hopes and dreams along for the ride?
Targe0
Yeah, but it can't see them, it used to get to hang out with its little buddy.
korvorn
CheesecurdLlama
Perseverance is not involved in any flight calculations for Ingenuity. The helicopter controls its flight entirely onboard, including landing. Radio to Perseverance is only required for Ingenuity to talk to Earth after the fact
ruint
Hallowed. Ground.
Well done to Ingenuity and it's team at JPL!
It was the best science, you've done two worlds proud.
Hypno1312
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! But what a success story
CoolFrost
I reckon that most terrestrial, never approach 2h of flight time before Yoteing themselves into a uncaringingly placed wall, shrubbery or body of water.
JRaven419
You'd think landing is something that it could use sensors to do on its own in the event of loss of communication. We have self driving cars that avoid nearby cars I would think this could land slowly knowing by sensors the best spot to set down.
StrandedonEarth
Ingenuity certainly did not rely on ground control from Earth; the lightspeed lag (measured in minutes) is far too long for that. I'm pretty sure it didn't even need comms with Perseverance for flight control; it only needed comms with Percy as a data relay.
TheCunningLinguists
The mothership of the rover.
CheesecurdLlama
Ingenuity does all flight processing onboard. Perseverance is only used as a relay to Earth for uplink and downlink
Hevach
Yeah, something got lost in the writing of a lot of articles on this. The communications drop wasn't the cause of the crash, it was a sign to ground control that something bad had happened.
writerbuddy
Surely it's still under warranty, put a call in for a repair guy. Yes I said it. I can't get misty eyed over a piece of hardware.
holyicon
Goal Achieved?
"Ingenuity flew on Mars. Now NASA will push it to the brink of destruction."
https://www.popsci.com/story/science/nasa-mars-ingenuity-helicopter-first-flight/
NotTinyPancakes
oh no someone send another bot to go help it :o
TheBlueMuppet
I want to go on a road trip. Put me on Mars in a big rover packed with snacks, give me a good suit, and a robot arm. I'll fix all these little bastards. Dream job.
ybiii
Its amazing how far away we cam litter
TheCunningLinguists
We were this close to putting bits of dead people on the moon last week.
The8obman
Fun Fact: NASA put a tiny piece of the first plane, the Wright Flyer, on the Ingenuity - https://www.popsci.com/science/nasa-mars-helicopter-wright-brothers/
yepitspuck
BlueDsc
That is a very fun fact. Thanks for sharing it.
AsABiologistWhoIsNotFunAtParties
Goldensands
Those brilliant bastards
bloxxing
what you get for not sending a maint crew and spare parts with it.
phalanaster
It’d be cool if they sent another far less advanced rover there, which had the capability to be a carrier for the super advanced flying robot. That way, if they wanted and was worth, could utilize the expensive, heavy and technical components which are allready on mars. But there are probably so many variables which instantly makes this proposal absurd. For example, I believe the drone was only supposed to complete 5 missions, yet it accomplished well over 50 last I read up on it. There for..
evilspyre
The flying robot isn't super advanced and doesn't have much worthwhile onboard, so that wouldn't be worth doing.
phalanaster
I was stil typing the second part of that, that’s where I was getting at, the technology onboard is likely so worn that the shear potential unreliability makes it not worth it
NKato
I think the next aerial mission to Mars is going to include some very interesting tech.
ruint
The first martian family isn't there for no reason.
Eventually we'lll build a civilisation around the sites where they stand.
Not a carrier, a monument.
adamsonpaul5772
Damaged on its last flight you say.
Shawnofavitch
We literally just want health care! Here on Earth, you know.
MediocreExtremist
didn't they require the chopper to lateron be able return the soil samples back to earth ?
korvorn
I believe Ingenuity was just a tech demonstration. The return samples will be gathered by future missions, likely other helicopters.
qwerty1418
No, the drone was initially just a proof of concept test that did well enough it got repurposed as a scout for helping to plan the route of the main rover.
They didn't plan on it lasting more than 30 days originally.
Hevach
The Mars sample return mission might use a drone but it will bring its own. Ingenuity doesn't have much capabilities, just a few engineering cameras and a thermometer.
verganas
Sad helicopter noises....
UnitConversionBot
1 meter per second ≈ 2.2 miles per hour
UnitConversionBot
3.3 feet ≈ 1.01 metres
zeacorzeppelin10
CaptainPawfulFox
"My battery is low, and it's getting dark"
Xerxes4242
Send Elon to fix it. He said he'd be ready to land people on Mars around this time so we should hold him to that!
EaNasirIsABastard
He is going there by hyperloop.
Xerxes4242
Probably safer, although his last starship launch did make it to staging before it blew up. Any day now we're going to Mars!
EaNasirIsABastard
I can't get very excited about someone else's vanity project.
scuba7jb
Can we send Matt Damon up there to fix it?
FlintNorth44
As long as he doesn't come back
Grimmrog
Sending pirates is not what nasa would do
htapoicoS
But who will get there and fix Damon?
mindstorm8191
The Factorio player in me imagines them building a small factory there just to build a replacement blade, lol
ILikeRespondingWithWillSmithGifs
ballsoutflyer
That's not Matt Damon.
SoraHjort
Not with the pittiful funding that congress gives NASA.
Ekibwurm
he should have been done already if we had put him on call at location....
agonarch
The rover could maybe cut roughly the same amount off the opposite end and it should be good for a few more flights if they need it for something, it's been done with manned helicopters in emergencies before so it should work here.
DumpsterSauce
Who's gonna cut it?
agonarch
The rover, as I suggested? Even if it doesn't have anything specifically for cutting I know it's at least got a rock drill and a scoop, it could drill a perforation pattern to then snap off with the clamshell scoop, the issue with flight with a damaged wing like this is the lift imbalance
StrandedonEarth
Only if he brings spare blades...
htapoicoS
"Damn, I knew we forgot something!"
kahooki
Send Musk and Bezos first to clear the way of any asteroids by contact removal.
Hashbrown123
There comes a time, where eve.......
IWasACatAllAlong
He's just gonna start doing his potato empire again.
One8updude
Please send him. For all our sakes! No more movies!
ontarioOT
Understopper
MATT DAMON!!
flamingflamingo
Wait, it only flew for 2 total hours?
4vie
It flew for 2 hours, on its own, on *another planet*. That's the big part!
PancakeLegend
"only"
flamingflamingo
I mean right but, the article says it's spent 3 years flying across Mars... and it logged 2 hours flight time in 3 years? I'm sure it's amazing but I'm just not understanding the purpose of flight on Mars if it's going to spend most of its time grounded.
qwerty1418
The bulk of it's flights were spent scouting a path for the main rover, since it can travel much faster and over worse terrain to check how clear possible paths would be. This saves the rover a ton of time so it can eo more science and waste less travel time.
For reference, the helicopter could travel up to ~20mph, while the rover has a top speed around .1mph.
EaNasirIsABastard
The purpose was only to test if a helicopter could work in such low density air. It was only able to fly for a few seconds each time.