Engineers at JPL today monitored a final transmission from the disabled Mars helicopter Ingenuity.
Mars rover Perseverance is ready to move on west for exploration of the Jezero crater rim.
Ingenuity will no longer be able to communicate with earth, but newly loaded software will allow it to make and store measurements every day, to be retrieved by a future robotic or human mission. Ingenuity’s memory could potentially hold about 20 years’ worth of daily data.
Few more pics from the Ingenuity control room at JPL, posted by Laurie Leshin, Director of JPL, including a pic of the team enjoying some “Final Comms” chocolate cake.
Kudos to the team, NASA and JPL where they "Dare Mighty Things Together."
The beleaguered Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission was planned to include 1 or more helicopters as backups. The updated design included wheels and a robotic arm to maneuver to and pick up rock sample tubes.
In the revised plan to reduce the ballooning cost of the mission and to shorten its schedule, the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) recommended against the helicopter. NASA is also soliciting inputs from industry for innovative ideas.
This is the video of Mars helicopter Ingenuity's first flight exactly 3 years ago on April 19, 2021.
It was a short 39 second up-and-down test flight, where Ingenuity climbed to 10 feet above the Martian surface, hovered for ~20 seconds, and landed successfully while rover Perseverance filmed the historic event.
The map in post #4 in this thread shows the location of Flight 1 and other flights until the final Flight #72 on Jan 18, 2024.
During its first flight on April 19, 2021, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity also tested out its navigation camera and comm. links and transmitted the now-familiar images of its shadow via Perseverance to earth.
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