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Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces 40th Red Planet flight

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NASA’s tiny Ingenuity helicopter now has 40 off-Earth flights under its belt.

The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity lifted off yet again on Thursday (Jan. 19), staying aloft for nearly 92 seconds on a sortie that covered about 584 feet (178 meters) of horizontal distance.

The flight repositioned Ingenuity, moving it from “Airfield Z” on the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater to “Airfield Beta,” according to the mission’s flight log (opens in new tab). That journey took the little chopper over some sand dunes, as imagery captured during the hop shows.

Related: Soar over Mars rover tracks with Ingenuity helicopter (video)

Zoomed-in view of a photo of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter taken by the agency’s Perseverance rover. The rover team posted this image on Twitter on Jan. 11, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Ingenuity landed with NASA’s car-sized Perseverance Mars rover in February 2021 inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero, which hosted a big lake and a river delta billions of years ago.

Perseverance is searching for signs of past Mars life in the area and collecting dozens of samples that will be returned to Earth as early as 2033 by a joint NASA/European Space Agency campaign.

The plan calls for Perseverance to deliver those samples to a rocket-equipped NASA lander, which will launch the material to Mars orbit. Up there, the sample container will be grabbed by a European probe, which will haul it to Earth. These other spacecraft are scheduled to launch in the mid- to late 2020s.

Over the past few weeks, Perseverance has been dropping sample tubes in a “depot” on Jezero’s floor. The depot is a backup, in case the rover isn’t healthy enough to deliver the samples to the lander later this decade. In that scenario, two small, Ingenuity-like helicopters that launched aboard the lander will collect the depot tubes one by one.

To date, Perseverance has cached eight of a planned 10 sample tubes (opens in new tab) in the depot, which is in a patch of Jezero’s floor the mission team calls Three Forks.

Ingenuity is a technology demonstrator designed to show that aerial exploration is possible on Mars despite the planet’s thin atmosphere. The helicopter’s prime mission covered just five flights, which Ingenuity knocked out shortly after touching down inside Jezero.

The chopper then shifted into an extended mission, during which it has been pushing its flight capabilities and serving as a scout for Perseverance. The helicopter’s aerial observations help the rover team identify potentially interesting scientific targets and pick the best routes through the rugged landscapes on Jezero’s floor.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab). 



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Perseverance rover spots Ingenuity helicopter on sand dune

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NASA’s Perseverance rover just caught another glimpse of its pioneering robotic cousin.

The car-sized Perseverance snapped a photo recently of the Ingenuity helicopter as the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) rotorcraft sat atop a Red Planet sand dune.

“The #MarsHelicopter and I are closer together than we’ve been in a while, and guess who I spotted resting on a dune between flights. Can you believe Ingenuity is gearing up for Flight #39?” the Perseverance team said via Twitter (opens in new tab) on Wednesday (Jan. 11), in a post that featured a photo of the little chopper.

Related: Soar over Mars rover tracks with Ingenuity helicopter (video)

Zoomed-in view of a photo of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter taken by the agency’s Perseverance rover. The rover team posted this image on Twitter on Jan. 11, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Ingenuity and Perseverance landed together inside Mars’ Jezero Crater in February 2021. The 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero hosted a big lake and a river delta long ago, and Perseverance is scouring the area for signs of ancient life on Mars.

The six-wheeled robot is also collecting and caching dozens of samples for future return to Earth. For the past few weeks, Perseverance has been caching some of its sample tubes in a “depot” in a patch of Jezero’s floor that the mission team calls Three Forks.

Perseverance has so far deposited six of a planned 10 sample tubes (opens in new tab) in the Three Forks depot, which serves as a backup in case the rover isn’t healthy enough to haul material to a future NASA lander later this decade. A rocket aboard that lander will launch the samples to Mars orbit, where they’ll be picked up by a European spacecraft and hauled back to Earth. The samples could land here as early as 2033.

The depot samples are doubles; Perseverance is keeping a set of material drilled from the same target rocks on its body. If need be, two Ingenuity-like helicopters that will launch with the future lander will fly over to Three Forks and grab the sample tubes there one by one.

Ingenuity is currently serving as a scout for Perseverance, helping the rover team pick the best routes through the rough Jezero landscape and identify promising outcrops for in-depth study.

This work is part of the chopper’s extended mission. Not long after landing, Ingenuity aced its primary five-flight campaign, showing that powered flight is possible in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Ingenuity conducted its 39th Martian flight on Wednesday, covering 459 feet (140 meters) of ground over the course of nearly 79 seconds. To date, the chopper has flown a total of 25,690 feet (7,830 m) on Mars and stayed airborne for more than 64 minutes, according to the mission’s flight log (opens in new tab).

Perseverance has captured footage of Ingenuity before. The rover snapped photos of the chopper just after it deployed onto Jezero’s floor, for example, and also recorded video of Ingenuity’s 13th flight, which took place in September 2021.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab). 



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Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces 36th Red Planet flight

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NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter now has three dozen Mars flights under its belt.

The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity aced its 36th Red Planet sortie on Sunday (Dec. 10), staying aloft for 60.5 seconds on a flight that covered 361 feet (110 meters) of horizontal distance.

Sunday’s hop came just a week after Ingenuity set a new altitude record, soaring 46 feet (14 m) above the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater on Dec. 3. The chopper got a maximum of 33 feet (10 m) above the red dirt this past Sunday, according to the mission’s flight log (opens in new tab).

Related: Soar over Mars rover tracks with Ingenuity helicopter (video)

Ingenuity landed with NASA’s Perseverance rover in February 2021, tasked with showing that powered flight is possible on Mars despite the planet’s thin atmosphere.

The helicopter aced that primary objective during a five-flight campaign in the spring of 2021. Ingenuity then shifted into an extended mission during which it’s pushing the boundaries of Red Planet flight and serving as a scout for Perseverance.

The rover, meanwhile, is hunting for signs of ancient Mars life and collecting dozens of samples. If all goes according to plan, this Mars material will be returned to Earth by a joint NASA/European Space Agency campaign, perhaps as early as 2033.

According to Ingenuity’s flight log, the rotorcraft has traveled a total of 24,633 feet (7,517 m) across its 36 sorties and has stayed airborne for nearly 61 minutes.

Perseverance is even more well-traveled. The car-sized rover has trekked a total of 8.53 miles (13.73 km) (opens in new tab) on the floor of Jezero, which harbored a lake and a river delta billions of years ago.

That’s far from the rover record, however. NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover put 28.06 miles (48.15 km) miles on its odometer while exploring the Red Planet from 2004 to 2018 — farther than any other robot has traveled on the surface of a world beyond Earth.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab). 



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NASA Mars Ingenuity helicopter broke its own record

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More than a year and a half after its first flight on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter has set a new record.

The little 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) chopper completed its 35th flight on December 3 and reached a new altitude record of 46 feet (14 meters).

The aerial excursion lasted for 52 seconds and took the helicopter a distance of about 50 feet (15 meters) to reposition it. This was Ingenuity’s first substantial outing since an 18-second hop and hover maneuver on November 22 to test the helicopter after receiving a major software upgrade that could increase the chopper’s life span.

The software will help Ingenuity with hazard avoidance when landing on the rocky Martian surface by generating digital elevation maps as it navigates on future flights.

Ingenuity was initially designed as a technology demonstration that would only pursue five flights on Mars after hitching a ride to the red planet with the Perseverance rover, which has been exploring the Martian landscape since February 2021.

Instead, the chopper has proven itself time and time again and become the rover’s aerial scout, flying over areas deemed too dangerous for the rover and surveying potential future destinations.

This expanded role has also sent Ingenuity flying over and landing on much more challenging terrain than ever anticipated by her team. Now that the team has had time to assess how Ingenuity is adjusting to its upgrades, the little chopper is ready to lift off for regular flights once more.

Next, Ingenuity will begin flying up the steep terrain of the ancient river delta, where water once flowed into Jezero crater more than 3 billion years ago.

Ingenuity’s surprising journey has also paved the way for future aerial exploration vehicles.

“Ingenuity’s success has led to NASA’s decision to take two Ingenuity class helicopters on the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander scheduled for later in this decade,” wrote Bob Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer emeritus, in a NASA blog update.

“These Sample Recovery Helicopters, with wheels instead of feet, and a small manipulator arm with a two-fingered gripper, will, if needed, carry precious sample tubes from a sample cache depot back to the Mars ascent vehicle for launch back to Earth. A more capable Mars Science Helicopter with the ability to carry almost 5 kg of science payloads is also in early conceptual and design stages.”

Meanwhile, the Perseverance rover continues to collect intriguing samples from Mars. On December 2 and December 6, the robotic explorer gathered its first two samples of regolith, or wind-blown sand and dust, from a small dune.

“There are so many different materials mixed into Martian regolith,” said astrobiologist Libby Hausrath, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Mars Sample Return scientist, in a statement. “Each sample represents an integrated history of the planet’s surface.”

Perseverance will drop some of its samples later this month at a designated flat depot site. The cache will be collected by future missions during the Mars Sample Return campaign and returned to Earth in the 2030s.

Broken rock and dust could reveal more information about the environment and geological history of Mars — but it could also shed light on how that dust might impact solar panels, spacesuits and other items crewed missions to the red planet will require.

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon, lunar regolith was discovered to be sharp enough to tear tiny holes in their spacesuits.

Scientists know the Martian surface includes a toxic chemical called perchlorate that could pose a threat to future explorers if inhaled.

“If we have a more permanent presence on Mars, we need to know how the dust and regolith will interact with our spacecraft and habitats,” said Erin Gibbons, Earth and planetary sciences doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal and member of the Perseverance rover science team, in a statement.

“Some of those dust grains could be as fine as cigarette smoke, and could get into an astronaut’s breathing apparatus. We want a fuller picture of which materials would be harmful to our explorers, whether they’re human or robotic.”

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Ingenuity helicopter sets altitude record on 35th Mars flight

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NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter keeps raising the bar for Red Planet flight. 

The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity soared 46 feet (14 meters) above Mars’ red dirt on Saturday (Dec. 3), setting a new altitude record on its 35th off-Earth flight.

The little chopper’s previous record was 39 feet (12 m), achieved on three previous Mars flights. (You can get a rundown of all 35 Ingenuity sorties in the mission’s flight log (opens in new tab).)

Related: Soar over Mars rover tracks with Ingenuity helicopter (video)

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Ingenuity landed with NASA’s Perseverance rover on the floor of Jezero Crater in February 2021. The helicopter soon deployed from the rover’s belly and embarked on a campaign to show that powered flight is possible in the thin Mars atmosphere.

That initial technology-demonstrating phase lasted less than a month and consisted of just five sorties. But NASA soon granted Ingenuity a mission extension, keeping the rotorcraft flying. Its current objectives center on pushing the envelope of Red Planet flight and performing reconnaissance for Perseverance.

The rover is searching for signs of ancient Mars life on the floor of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Perseverance is also collecting and caching a series of samples, which a joint NASA-European Space Agency campaign will return to Earth, perhaps as early as 2033.

Saturday’s flight was the first for Ingenuity since Nov. 22 and just the second it has performed since a major software update. That update, which took several weeks to install, “provides Ingenuity two major new capabilities: hazard avoidance when landing and the use of digital elevation maps to help navigate,” mission team members wrote in a blog post late last month (opens in new tab).

Ingenuity covered about 49 feet (15 m) of horizontal distance on Saturday’s flight, which lasted 52 seconds. The helicopter has now traveled a total of 24,302 feet (7,407 m) and stayed aloft for 59.9 minutes on its 35 Mars sorties, according to the mission flight log.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab). 



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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Completes First Flight With New Navigation Software

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This illustration depicts Mars Helicopter Ingenuity during a test flight on Mars. Ingenuity was taken to the Red Planet strapped to the belly of the Perseverance rover (seen in the background). Ingenuity, a technology experiment, was the first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Compared to some of the other flights this past year, Ingenuity

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image using its navigation camera. This camera is mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight. This image was acquired on November 23, 2022 (Sol 625 of the Perseverance rover mission) at the local mean solar time of 16:39:52. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In previous flights, Ingenuity’s pilots needed to find airfields free of any rocks or other obstacles that could potentially damage the vehicle when landing. Jezero Crater is a rocky place, so safe airfields have been difficult to find! Using Ingenuity’s downward-facing navigation camera, this software update adds hazard avoidance on landing. While in flight, Ingenuity will identify the safest visible landing site. When preparing to land, Ingenuity will then divert over to this selected site. This capability allows Ingenuity to safely land in rockier terrain than before, providing our pilots with many more potential landing sites.

Ingenuity’s navigation software was designed to assume the vehicle was flying over flat terrain. When the helicopter is flying over terrain like hills, this flat-ground assumption causes Ingenuity’s navigation software to think the vehicle is veering, causing Ingenuity to start actually veering in an attempt to counter the error. Over long flights, navigation errors caused by rough terrain must be accounted for, requiring the team to select large airfields. This new software update corrects this flat-ground assumption by using digital elevation maps of Jezero Crater to help the navigation software distinguish between changes in terrain and vehicle movement. This increases Ingenuity’s

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Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces 1st flight after software update

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NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity has performed its shortest-ever flight, the first after a major software update that will allow the little chopper to land more safely and navigate over rugged terrain. 

Ingenuity‘s 34th flight, which took place on Tuesday (Nov. 22), lasted only 18 seconds and saw the helicopter briefly hover after takeoff above Mars’ surface before landing just 16 feet (5 meters) away from its starting point. The flight, the first since Sept. 29, was the first try-out of a new software system that was beamed to Ingenuity from Earth to improve its ability to operate in the rugged terrain that its parent Perseverance rover is currently exploring. 

Ingenuity is an extremely successful technology demonstration, but it was built to navigate in smooth terrain, such as Wright Brothers Field, where it was first deployed in April 2021. The helicopter has been nailing one flight after another, prompting its ground control teams to dare to begin sending the flying robot into more complicated landscapes. 

Related: Soar over Mars rover tracks with Ingenuity helicopter (video)

These more daring flights required the Ingenuity team to search for level airfields that are free of rocks that could damage the helicopter during landing. Because Jezero Crater, which the helicopter and Perseverance are exploring, is rather rocky, those flat, safe airfields have been hard to find. The new software will use Ingenuity’s downward-facing camera to detect risky objects before landing and steer Ingenuity to avoid them, allowing the chopper to use smaller airfields.

“While in flight, Ingenuity will identify the safest visible landing site,” the Ingenuity team said in a statement (opens in new tab). “When preparing to land, Ingenuity will then divert over to this selected site.”

The software will also make Ingenuity more confident in flight. Since the helicopter was designed to fly over flat fields, its cameras previously could get confused by seeing a hilly landscape underneath. The old software would think the helicopter was veering, which would make it actually veer while in flight in a misguided attempt to stabilize its course. 

“Over long flights, navigation errors caused by rough terrain must be accounted for, requiring the team to select large airfields,” the Ingenuity team said in the statement. “This new software update corrects this flat-ground assumption by using digital elevation maps of Jezero Crater to help the navigation software distinguish between changes in terrain and vehicle movement.”

With the new software, Ingenuity will be able to scout a wider range of terrain types for Perseverance to explore in detail. 

“We’re all excited to see where this update will allow us to take Ingenuity’s journey next!” the team wrote.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab). 



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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Had Mystery Debris Stuck to Its Leg

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Ingenuity’s navigation camera (NavCam) caught the debris, which can be seen in the bottom right of this image.
Gif: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter just completed its 33rd flight on Mars, and this one featured an unexpected twist: unidentified debris stuck to one of its lander legs.

Ingenuity’s navigation camera, or NavCam, captured images of the hitchhiker during the aerial jaunt on September 24, NASA wrote in a status update. Images show the helicopter taking off with the debris dangling from one of its legs, much like a piece of toilet paper stuck to a shoe. As Ingenuity moves through the air, the debris detaches from the lander leg and floats off into the distance.

NASA noted that the debris was not present in NavCam images from Ingenuity’s previous flight, and that all data from the helicopter’s instruments are nominal—meaning the debris is likely not from Ingenuity itself. While it certainly looks like plastic, NASA says that the Ingenuity team is working on identifying what exactly it is and where it came from. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab did not immediately reply to Gizmodo’s request for more information.

During flight number 33—and it’s amazing to write that, given that the original mission called for just five test flights—Ingenuity was supposed to be in the air for just under a minute, reaching an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) and traversing about 365 feet (111 meters).

This is not the first time we’ve spotted debris on Mars. In July, the Perseverance rover imaged what looked like a wad of Martian spaghetti, and in April, Ingenuity got a photo of the crumpled mess of landing gear that helped Perseverance touch down on Mars, which is now a part of the planet’s dusty landscape for the foreseeable future.

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Ingenuity Mars helicopter spots debris on leg on latest flight

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Something strange is afoot on a Martian helicopter.

The Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, which is exploring Jezero Crater along with its rover partner Perseverance, had something stuck to its foot on a recent flight. Engineers caught the debris (opens in new tab) on camera during Ingenuity’s 33rd flight above the Red Planet in late September, and noted that imagery showed the debris flew off the little helicopter. (While it looks like a bit of a cobweb or a Twinkie wrapper, we can at least rest assured it’s not aliens.)

Footage from the mission’s NavCam shows the debris falling naturally back to the surface partway through the flight, before Ingenuity made a safe touchdown back on the sands of Mars.

Related: It’s still not aliens: ‘Mars bug’ claim could damage the search for life 

Ingenuity’s 33rd flight on Mars in September 2022 featured a piece of debris flying off the drone. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“All telemetry from the flight and a post-flight search and transfer are nominal and show no indication of vehicle damage. The Ingenuity and Perseverance Mars 2020 teams are working to discern the source of the debris,” officials from NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a statement (opens in new tab).

Ingenuity is flying well into an extended mission. The drone is the first ever to fly above Mars and was originally rated for five flights. Now it’s about to break that mark by sevenfold.

The Ingenuity drone on Mars had a piece of debris on its leg during its 33rd flight in September 2022. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA is seeking to test Ingenuity as much as possible, especially as the agency plans to put Mars helicopters into play for a future sample return mission. 

Perseverance is on a long-term quest to pick up the most promising samples for closer examination on Earth, as scientists seek more answers as to whether life on Mars was possible in the ancient past. 

In the meantime, Ingenuity is acting as a test scout for Perseverance as the rover continues to explore an ancient river delta. Water on Mars is one of the key areas of study as scientists continue to discuss the planet’s habitability.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab). 



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NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Spots Foreign Object Debris on Mars

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By NASA/JPL
October 2, 2022

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image using its navigation camera. This camera is mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight. This image was acquired on November 6, 2021 (Sol 254 of the Perseverance rover mission) at the local mean solar time of 12:06:00. This was the date of Ingenuity’s 15th flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Footage from the

This foreign object debris was not visible in Navcam footage from the previous flight (32). The FOD is seen in Flight 33 Navcam imagery from the earliest frames to around halfway through the video, when it fell from the leg and drifted back to the Mars surface. All telemetry from the flight and a post-flight search and transfer are nominal and show no indication of vehicle damage. The Ingenuity and Perseverance Mars 2020 teams are currently working to determine the source of the debris.

Navigation Camera Imagery of Ingenuity’s Flight 33: A small piece of foreign object debris (FOD) is seen in this footage from the navigation camera of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 33rd flight on Mars on September 24, 2022. The FOD is seen attached to one of the rotorcraft’s landing legs (upper right part of image), then drifting away. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Flight 33 Preview – By the Numbers

  • Flight number – 33
  • No earlier than Sol 567, Saturday, Sept. 24
  • Heading – West
  • Max Altitude – 33 feet (10 meters)
  • Expected Distance – ~365 feet (111.238 meters)
  • Expected Airspeed – 10.6 mph (4.75 m/s)
  • Expected Time Aloft – 55.61 seconds
  • Goal of Flight: Reposition of the helicopter



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