The Mars helicopter Ingenuity will cease operations due to damage it has sustained, the US space agency, NASA, announced on Thursday.
Footage sent back to Earth this week shows damage to one or more of Ingenuity’s rotor blades following a landing. Despite remaining upright and maintaining communication with its Earth-based control centre, it is no longer capable of flight.
The helicopter’s mission has now ended almost three years after it began. Ingenuity has exceeded expectations: originally designed to last thirty days and perform five test flights, its final count stands at seventy-two flights.
Furthermore, Ingenuity demonstrated that it was capable of flying fourteen times further than planned.
Landing on Mars with the rover Perseverance in February 2021, the 1.8-kilogramme helicopter became, soon after, the first device to complete a flight above the surface of another planet.
