NASA has shed light on why its Ingenuity Helicopter, part of the Mars 2020 mission, experienced a hard landing on the Martian surface in January. After an exhaustive investigation led by engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and AeroVironment, the culprit was identified as a navigation system failure caused by the lack of surface texture in the flight region.
Ingenuity, designed to scout and collect data over Mars’ rugged terrain, embarked on its ill-fated flight in Jezero Crater. The helicopter reached a peak altitude of 12 meters, captured images, and attempted to return to the surface after 32 seconds. However, communication was abruptly severed during its descent. When contact was re-established, engineers found Ingenuity had sustained significant damage, including the loss of all four rotor blades.
Havard Grip, Ingenuity’s first pilot at JPL, explained, “When running an accident investigation from 100 million miles away, you don’t have any black boxes or eyewitnesses. While multiple scenarios are viable with the available data, we have one we believe is most likely: Lack of surface texture gave the navigation system too little information to work with.”
What Went Wrong?
Ingenuity’s navigation system relies on tracking visual features on the Martian terrain, using its onboard camera to identify pebbly, textured surfaces for stable flight. Unfortunately, the helicopter was flying over a region of the Jezero Crater filled with steep, featureless sand ripples, which provided insufficient data for its navigation algorithms.
This lack of reliable input caused Ingenuity to pitch and roll, resulting in an abrupt attitude change. The rapid shifts created extreme loads on its fast-rotating rotor blades, causing all four to snap at their weakest points a third of the way from their tips. One blade was completely torn from its root, triggering vibrations and excessive power demands that ultimately severed communication with the mission team on Earth.
While the crash marked the end of Ingenuity’s flights, it did not overshadow its groundbreaking achievements. Initially designed for just five test flights over 30 days, the helicopter far exceeded expectations by completing 72 flights over nearly three years and flying 30 times farther than planned.
Its maiden flight on April 19, 2021, saw the 1.8-kilogram rotorcraft lift off Mars’ surface using its two counter-rotating blades, a historic moment for interplanetary exploration.
Even in its grounded state, Ingenuity continues to contribute to Martian exploration. The helicopter transmits weather and avionics test data to Perseverance, aiding NASA’s understanding of the planet’s climate and atmospheric conditions. Additionally, its data is informing the design of future Martian aircraft and vehicles, paving the way for more advanced exploration of the Red Planet.
While Ingenuity’s story ended on a hard note, its success in redefining extraterrestrial flight remains an unparalleled milestone in space exploration.
