The NASA helicopter Ingenuity on Mars made the first powered controlled flights by an aircraft on a planet other than Earth. It first flew on April 19, 2021, after landing on February 18 attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity weighs and is tall. It is powered by six lithium-ion solar-charged batteries. It was built and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a field center of NASA. Ingenuity was designed to fly five times in 30 Mars sols (31 Earth days), but operated far above expectations, making its 72nd and final flight on January 18, 2024 (UTC), Mars sols ( Earth days) after its first flight. Its rotor blades were damaged on the last flight's landing, causing NASA to retire the craft. Mission engineers determined that Ingenuity’s navigation system could not provide accurate data during the flight over featureless terrain, resulting in an off-balance hard landing.
List of flights
# Date (UTC) Duration (sec) Altitude Distance Max Ground Speed Route Summary Technology Demonstration Phase 1If a flight's UTC time is not published by NASA or media sources, it is calculated by the template based on Mars timestamps published by NASA with photographs taken by the Navcam on Ingenuity.(Sol 58) 39.1 0 m/s (0 mph)Vertical takeoff, hover, land at Wright Brothers Field (JZRO) The first powered flight by any aircraft on another planet. While hovering, it rotated in place 96 degrees in a planned manoeuvre. Flight data was received at 11:30 UTC.2 (Sol 61)51.9 RoundtripHover, shift westward , hover, return, hover, land within JZROFrom initial hover, it tilted 5 degrees, allowing rotors to fly it 2 meters sideways. It stopped, hovered in place, and rotated counterclockwise, yawing from +90° to 0° to -90° to -180°, in 3 steps, to point its color camera in various directions to take photos. It flew back to the takeoff location and landed.3April 25, 2021 at 11:31(Sol 64)80.3 Roundtrip Hover, shift northward , return, hover, land within JZRO First flight to venture some distance from the deployment spot. It flew downrange 50 meters at two meters per second, stopped, hovered, then returned and landed at the departure spot. Data from the flight was received at 14:16 UTC. Transition Phase 4April 29, 2021 (Sol 68) First attempt of flight 4 failed; onboard software did not transition to flight mode.(Sol 69)116.9 RoundtripHover, shift southward , hover, return, hover, land within JZROTook color images while hovering at its farthest point from takeoff. The Perseverance rover recorded both audio and video of Ingenuity in flight, making the helicopter the first interplanetary vehicle whose sound was recorded off Earth.5May 7, 2021 at 19:26(Sol 76)108.2 Hover, shift southwards , climb to , hover, land at Airfield B This was the first flight to land at a new location, to the south. Arriving above the destination, it gained altitude, hovered, captured color terrain images, then landed at the new site, Airfield B. This flight was the last in the technology demonstration phase.Operation Demonstration Phase6May 23, 2021 at 5:20(Sol 91)139.9 with direction changes)Shift southwest about , southward about , northeast about , land at Airfield CAt each turn into the flight, colour images were taken. Near the end of the first leg of the route at 54 seconds into flight, a glitch occurred in the navigation images processing system. An image was dropped, and subsequent images with incorrect timestamps resulted in the craft tilting forward and backward up to 20 degrees, with large spikes in power consumption. It flew in that mode until successfully landing about away from the planned spot, after turning off navigation camera and flying on IMU. This was the first time the helicopter had to land at an airfield which was not surveyed by any means other than MRO satellite imagery.7 June 6, 2021 (Sol )First attempt of flight 7 failed; onboard software did not transition to flight mode.June 8, 2021 at 15:54(Sol 107)62.8Shift southward to land at Airfield DFlew to a new landing spot, Airfield D. The color camera was not used to prevent the glitch of flight 6 happening again.8(Sol 120)77.4Shift south south-east to land at Airfield EThe landing spot was about away from the Perseverance rover. As in the previous flight, the color camera was switched off, pending a software update.9July 5, 2021 at 9:03(Sol 133)166.4Shift southwest to Airfield FFlew southwest, over Séítah, a prospective research location in Jezero crater. This flight strained the navigation system, which by design assumes flat ground; Séítah has uneven sand dunes. Controllers had Ingenuity partly compensate by flying slower over the more challenging part of the route. Landing occurred from the center of the planned ellipse.10(Sol 152)165.4Loop south and west over prospective research location Raised Ridges to Airfield G The helicopter flew past 10 waypoints, including takeoff and landing. The general trajectory of the 10th flight was four chords of a broken oval, thus distance between the takeoff and landing points of about 95 meters.11August 5, 2021 at 4:53(Sol 163)130.9Shift northwest to land at Airfield HThe flight positioned the craft for a route to take photographs of South Séítah. The airfield " H " was the second after "Wright Brothers Field" in terms of the number of departures, and in terms of the total length (1069 m) and duration of these flights (481.8 s), as well as the parking time of the helicopter (3 months, from August 5 to November 6) airfield " H " even outstripped the cradle of Martian aeronautics.12August 16, 2021 at 12:57(Sol 174) RoundtripTakeoff and return, land within Airfield HThe return path was about to the side to allow another attempt to take paired images for stereo imagery. Landing was about east from the take-off point. This flight was decisive for the subsequent fate of the helicopter, which then got its mission extended after August. It captured images used to scout the South Seitha region which had been under consideration for future rover investigation, but proved less interesting than hoped. 13September 5, 2021 at 0:10(Sol 193)160.5 Roundtrip Takeoff and return, land within Airfield HThe flight northeast and back concentrated on one particular ridgeline and outcrops in South Séítah.14September 18, 2021 (Sol )A flight attempt at a faster rotor spin rate of 2700 rpm was automatically canceled due to a servo motor anomaly. Three days earlier, September 15, Ingenuity successfully ground tested a rotor spin rate of 2800 rpm. Servo motor "wiggle" tests were done on September 21 and 23 to diagnose the problem that prevented flight. More ground tests and another flight attempt were postponed until after solar conjunction. Then, on October 21, NASA/JPL reported a successful 50 rpm ground test. Ingenuity made its 14th flight three days later.October 24, 2021 at 8:18(Sol 241)23.0Dogleg eastwards , land within Airfield HThe brief flight verified use of the faster rotor spin of 2700 rpm, needed during seasonal lower atmospheric density on Mars.15November 6, 2021 at 16:22 (Sol 254)128.8 Shift southeast to land at Airfield FFirst in a series of four to seven flights on a return journey to Wright Brothers Field, due to the low atmospheric pressure and varied relief features. This leg ended in the Raised Ridges region.16(Sol 268)107.9 Shift northeast to land at Airfield JLanded near the edge of South Séítah, prior to crossing that area on multiple impending flights.17December 5, 2021 at 12:25(Sol 282)116.8Shift northeast to land at Airfield KFlew halfway across South Séítah along the heading of flight 9 but in the reverse direction. The helicopter lost communication with the rover during final descent, roughly above the ground due to 5-meter Bras outcrop ib between, but JPL believed the flight was a success, based on available telemetry. On Sol 285, Ingenuity relayed more information which suggested the helicopter was upright, based on the solar arrays charging the batteries, which could not be done if the helicopter fell sideways. JPL said local terrain and Perseverance positioning probably interrupted communication.18December 15, 2021 at 17:27(Sol 292)124.3Shift northeast to land near the northern edge of South Séítah at Airfield LFlew across South Séítah in the reverse of the flight 9 heading and landed near flight 9 takeoff spot. This was another in a series of flights returning Ingenuity to Wright Brothers Field. Airfield L has featureless sandy terrain, chosen for the lack of rocks for safe landing. The area is actually so devoid of rock that the helicopter sent warnings due to insufficient features for the vision navigation to track. JPL planned to update software fault protection parameters to reduce the risk of a premature landing on Flight 19.19 Originally planned for January 5, 2022 (Sol ); rescheduled for January 23 (Sol ); flown on February 8, 2022 (Sol ).The first attempt of flight 19 was postponed due to a dust storm approaching Jezero Crater, the first time weather delayed a flight of an airborne vehicle on a celestial object other than Earth. The storm reduced sunlight by 18 percent on Ingenuity's solar array, which charges its batteries, and warm dust lowered the surrounding air density by seven percent, which could have exceeded Ingenuity's ability to generate adequate lift. JPL waited over a month for the air to clear and the helicopter to regain its pre-storm power generating ability. The storm deposited dust on the navigation camera window. To prevent navigation errors, JPL uploaded a new image mask file in late January that ignores certain regions of the image. Dust and sand also accumulated in all the swashplate assemblies. Repeated actuator self-tests and servo-wiggles cleared the debris.February 8, 2022 at 04:21(Sol 345)99.8Shift northeast to land just above the eastern ridge of South Séítah at Airfield E The helicopter flew out of South Séítah basin, across a dividing ridge and up to the main plateau, near the landing site of Flight 8. Images taken during Flight 9 were used to select a safe zone. The flight was another in a series to return to Wright Brothers Field. This gradual approach is due to lack of large landing sites in the area and lower atmospheric density in the summer, which requires higher rotor speeds and more power. The flight plan called for the helicopter to turn nearly 180 degrees before landing to aim its color camera toward the river delta for future flights.20(Sol 362)130.3Shift northwest flying across Séítah to land at Airfield M Ingenuity continued its journey back toward its original flight zone, landing just southwest of Wright Brothers Field. From there, it will take a shortcut to the Jezero Crater river delta, flying northwest across Séítah, while Perseverance drives around the region to the "Three Forks" a at the foot of the slopes, on the tops of which three dry channels (sleeves) of the Neretva flow. The latest auto-navigation system allows Perseverance to break away from Ingenuity in a few sols, and therefore the helicopter had to go on a campaign first and in advance.21March 10, 2022 at 22:10(Sol 375)129.2Shift northwest flying across Séítah to land at Airfield NFirst in a series of flights to a position near the base of the ancient river delta in Jezero Crater to scout ahead for Perseverance.22March 20, 2022 at 4:06