What's the Next Step for NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter After Mission Ends on Mars?

[berkeman]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/world/nasa-mars-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends-scn/index.html

CNN

After completing 72 historic flights on Mars over three years, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter mission has ended.

Originally designed as an experiment, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to operate and fly on another world, lifting off on April 19, 2021.

Imagery and data returned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, showed that one or more of the chopper’s carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged while landing during its final flight this month. The team determined that the helicopter is no longer able to fly, according to the space agency.

Ingenuity, which had traveled to Mars as the Perseverance rover’s trusty sidekick, is sitting upright on the surface of the red planet, and mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been able to maintain communications with the rotorcraft.

 

[berkeman]

Ingenuity, which had traveled to Mars as the Perseverance rover’s trusty sidekick, is sitting upright on the surface of the red planet,

I wonder if this is a subtle dig at the "Moon Sniper" team...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/26/japan-slim-moon-sniper-probe-landing-upside-down

 

[Vanadium 50]

Shouldn't this be in GD with all the RIP threads on obscure footballers?

This really worked remarkably well, given that it was intended more as a proof of concept than a scientific instrument. Yes, the Martian gravity is only 40% of Earth's, but the air pressure is less than 1% that of Earth. You need to move a huge volume to move just a little mass.

The fact that it did not require real-time human control is also impressive. It only takes one hard-coded constant or bad unit conversion for it to fail. (Mars Climate Orbiter Impactor anyone?)

Titan may be an excellent future target.

 

[mfb]

Ingenuity was just the start. We'll get more.

Titan may be an excellent future target.

Dragonfly is planned to launch in 2028. Flying on Titan is so easy that a human could power a small aircraft similar to how you would ride a bike on Earth. It's just really cold. And without oxygen.