Tag: ingenuity

NASA helicopter’s mission ends after three years on Mars

By Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, Jan 26, 2024 (AFP) – NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which made history by achieving the first powered flight on another world, has officially ended its nearly three-year mission after sustaining rotor damage during its last outing, the space agency said Thursday. The tissue-box sized aircraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet under the belly of the Perseverance rover, first lifted off the surface on April 19, 2021. Originally intended […]

NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars

WASHINGTON, Jan 21, 2024 (AFP) – NASA has re-established contact with its tiny helicopter on Mars, the US space agency said Saturday, after an unexpected outage prompted fears that the hard-working craft had finally met its end. Ingenuity, a drone about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) tall, arrived on Mars in 2021 aboard the rover Perseverance and became the first motorized craft to fly autonomously on another planet. Data from the helicopter are transmitted via Perseverance […]

NASA loses contact with its mini-helicopter on Mars

WASHINGTON (AFP) – NASA has lost contact with its tiny helicopter Ingenuity during the hard-working craft’s 72nd flight, the space agency said. The agency’s engineers are attempting to re-establish communications, which ended abruptly on Thursday as the craft was making its descent from a test flight, NASA said late Friday. Ingenuity, which resembles a large drone, had arrived on Mars in 2021 with the rover Perseverance and became the first motorized craft to fly autonomously […]

After six months on Mars, NASA’s tiny copter is still flying high

  by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France Presse It was only supposed to fly five times. And yet NASA’s helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, has completed 12 flights and it isn’t ready to retire. Given its stunning and unexpected success, the US space agency has extended Ingenuity’s mission indefinitely. The tiny helicopter has become the regular travel companion of the rover Perseverance, whose core mission is to seek signs of ancient life on Mars. “Everything is working […]

NASA aims for historic helicopter flight on Mars

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — NASA is hoping to make history early Monday when the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter attempts the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The space agency had originally planned the flight for April 11 but postponed it over a software issue that was identified during a planned high-speed test of the aircraft’s rotors. The issue has since been resolved, and the four-pound (1.8 kilograms) drone could achieve its feat by around […]

NASA delays Mars copter flight for tech check

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — NASA has delayed by at least several days the first flight of its mini-helicopter on Mars after a possible tech issue emerged while testing its rotors, the US space agency said Saturday. Ingenuity’s trip, which is to be the first-ever powered, controlled flight on another planet, was set for Sunday but is now on hold until at least April 14. A high-speed test of the four-pound (1.8 kilogram) helicopter’s […]

NASA wants to fly a helicopter on Mars for the first time

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — More than a century after the first powered flight on Earth, NASA intends to prove it’s possible to replicate the feat on another world. Transported aboard the Mars 2020 spacecraft that arrives at the Red Planet on Thursday, the small Ingenuity helicopter will have several challenges to overcome — the biggest being the rarefied Martian atmosphere, which is just one percent the density of Earth’s. – Ultralight – It might […]