NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter crash has been analyzed, revealing a navigation error as the cause of its demise. The aircraft completed 72 flights before making a hard landing in January this year, ending its mission prematurely.
Ingenuity was attached to the Perseverance rover and built using off-the-shelf components, including a Snapdragon 801 smartphone processor. Initially, the team aimed for five flights over a month but exceeded that goal, demonstrating the potential of flying drones for exploration.
During one of these scouting flights in January 2024, Ingenuity lost contact and images revealed damaged rotor blades. Investigations by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and AeroVironment, the drone contractor, have concluded that a “lack of surface texture” caused navigation errors.
Specifically, the region of Jezero Crater where the final flight took place featured steep slopes of featureless sand, leading to miscalculated velocity measurements. This resulted in excessive vibration, ripping one blade from its housing and causing damage to all four blades.
Despite the chaotic ending, Ingenuity’s legacy is one of success, demonstrating that aerial exploration on Mars is possible and efficient. The grounded helicopter continues to relay weather and avionics test data to NASA, highlighting the potential for smaller, less expensive designs in the harsh Martian environment.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/nasa-reveals-cause-ingenuity-mars-201500558.html