Ingenuity Mars helicopter

What happened in the Ingenuity helicopter crash?

NASA calls it a hard landing, and its investigation, published in December 2024, traced it to the ground below. By its 72nd flight Ingenuity was flying over steep, smooth sand ripples, and its navigation camera found too little texture to track.[4]

1. Jan 18, 2024 · flight 72Ingenuity climbed to 12 m (40 ft), hovered, and started back down.[3]
2. About 1 m (3 ft) upIt lost contact with Perseverance, the rover that relayed its signals to Earth.[3]
3. TouchdownNavigation errors left it moving fast sideways as it landed. The impact snapped all four rotor blades at their weakest point, about a third of the way in from the tip.[4]
4. Jan 25, 2024After images showed the damage, NASA announced that Ingenuity’s mission had ended.[3]
5. Dec 11, 2024NASA published its findings, “the first aircraft accident investigation on another world”.[4]

The picture that showed the damage

How many times did the Mars helicopter fly?

Ingenuity was built as a test: NASA planned no more than five flights in 30 days. It flew 72 times in under three years.[1]

Totals and conversions as NASA gives them, except the mass in pounds, which we calculated.[1][2]

Its first flight, on Apr 19, 2021, lasted 39.1 seconds: it rose 3 m (10 ft), hovered for 30 seconds and landed.[2] Its two rotors spun in opposite directions at almost 3,000 turns a minute.[2]

Is Ingenuity still working?

It can’t fly. After the crash, NASA sent it a software update so it could work as a weather station, and by April 2024 it was working that way: it wakes each day, checks its solar panel, batteries and electronics, takes a color photo and records temperatures. NASA said its memory could hold about 20 years of daily data, and that Perseverance would eventually drive out of range.[8]

As of December 2024, NASA said Ingenuity still sent weather and avionics data to Perseverance about once a week.[4] NASA hasn’t said whether that link still works now that Perseverance has driven west, out of Jezero Crater.

Where is Ingenuity now?

In Jezero Crater, on the spot its team nicknamed “Valinor Hills”, after a place in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Perseverance photographed it there on Feb 4, 2024, from about 450 m (1,475 ft) away.[6] NASA’s flight log puts its last landing at about 18.50°N, 77.32°E.[7]

Will NASA send another Mars helicopter?

NASA is working on SkyFall: three helicopters that would carry ground-penetrating radar to hunt for ice under the surface. NASA says SkyFall is expected to launch on its Space Reactor-1 Freedom spacecraft in late 2028.[9]

Mission timeline

1. Jul 30, 2020Launches with Perseverance, tucked under the rover.
2. Feb 18, 2021Lands in Jezero Crater with Perseverance.
3. Apr 19, 2021Flight 1: the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
4. Jan 18, 2024Flight 72 ends in a hard landing.
5. Jan 25, 2024NASA ends the mission.
6. April 2024Becomes a weather station after a software update.
7. Dec 11, 2024NASA publishes the accident investigation.

Sources

1. NASA Science — Ingenuity Mars HelicopterPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
2. NASA NSSDCA — Mars 2020 (2020-052A)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
3. NASA — After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission EndsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
4. NASA JPL — NASA Performs First Aircraft Accident Investigation on Another WorldPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
5. NASA Science (Photojournal) — Ingenuity Spots the Shadow of Its Damaged Rotor Blade (PIA26243)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
6. NASA JPL — Perseverance Spots Ingenuity at Its Final Airfield (PIA26236)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
7. NASA Mars rover map data — Ingenuity flight log (helicopter waypoints file)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
8. NASA JPL — NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Team Says Goodbye … for NowPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
9. NASA JPL — NASA Tests Featherweight Radar Antenna for SkyFall Mars HelicoptersPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026