After a dramatic six-mission career that included flying over Martian plains, dodging dust storms, and performing feats of aerial acrobatics in a place where oxygen is less abundant than enthusiasm at a tax seminar, NASA’s Martian helicopter Ingenuity has officially been retired.
The announcement came with all the solemnity of a retirement party for a very hardworking drone. The space agency confirmed that the tiny rotorcraft suffered damage to one of its rotor blades during its most recent flight, the 72nd in total, which, for context, is 71 more flights than it was originally designed to perform. NASA likely hoped not to push its luck any further, even though pushing luck is practically its core business model.
The damage appears to have happened when Ingenuity attempted a landing on January 18. The helicopter lost contact shortly before touchdown but reestablished communication a day later. Unfortunately, the images showed significant damage to one of its blades, effectively grounding it forevermore.
What was meant to be a simple test of powered flight in the thin Martian air ballooned into a years-long series of overachievements, and NASA scientists, perhaps unable to resist getting attached, ended up giving the helicopter as many extra missions as a Bond villain gives monologues. Ingenuity flew farther and higher than anyone expected, capturing aerial views of the Martian surface and occasionally photo-bombing its tag-team partner, the Perseverance rover.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson described Ingenuity’s tenure as “the little helicopter that could” which, given how publicly space agencies mourn dead hardware, is about as close as it gets to a eulogy. Ingenuity was originally supposed to complete only five brief flights back in 2021. It ended up staying in operation for nearly three years, making it both the most successful test flight in NASA history and possibly the most stubborn little flyer this side of an angry goose.
Now that Ingenuity is grounded, Perseverance will carry on solo, presumably missing its aerial buddy but not missing the constant whirring sound of rotor blades overhead.
Farewell, Ingenuity. You went to Mars, took flight, broke records, and then broke a blade. Quite frankly, we all break down eventually. Only most of us don’t do so on another planet.
Turns out the sky wasn’t the limit, but rotor durability still might be.