On January 6, 2024, Ingenuity flew 40 feet (12 meters) skyward but then made an unplanned early landing after just 35 seconds. Twelve days later, operators intended to troubleshoot the vehicle with a quick up-and-down test. Data from the vehicle indicated that it ascended to 40 feet again during this test, but then communications were ominously lost at the end of the flight.
On January 20, 2024, NASA reestablished communications with the helicopter, but the space agency declared an end to its flying days after an image of the vehicle’s shadow showed that at least one of its blades had sustained minor damage. This capped an end to a remarkable mission during which Ingenuity exceeded all expectations.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
by Busy_Yesterday9455
11 Comments
Rip
Damn that was 2 years ago?!? Rest in piece Ingenuity, your time was shot but massively impactful.
Hopefully they will send more like Ingenuity in the future.
Final image until the next fly by. AI crap tirles
good bot
Didn’t this also last a hell of a long longer than planned/engineered for?
[deleted]
Gotta love America’s NASA. Land a nuclear powered automobile sized robot with a miniature helicopter strapped to its belly on another planet.
Rover still roving 6 years later and the heli captures the record for the first powered flight on another planet.
I wonder if eventually we can send mechanical bodies to fix them/build stuff. Not robots, not AI, but bodies controlled by someone on earth… Though now that I think about it, the latency might be too much
Woah, time flys