The Ingenuity Mars helicopter team convened one last time on Tuesday (April 16) to oversee a transmission from the little rotorcraft, the first robot

Ingenuity team says goodbye to pioneering Mars helicopter

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2024-04-18 05:00:04

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter team convened one last time on Tuesday (April 16) to oversee a transmission from the little rotorcraft, the first robot ever to explore the skies of a world beyond Earth.

The meeting, in a control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, came nearly three months after Ingenuity's 72nd and final flight. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper damaged its rotors while landing that day, consigning it to a stationary existence from now on — but it lives still, as a weather station and technology testbed.

"With apologies to Dylan Thomas, Ingenuity will not be going gently into that good Martian night," Josh Anderson, Ingenuity team lead at JPL, said in a statement.

"It is almost unbelievable that, after over 1,000 Martian days on the surface, 72 flights, and one rough landing, she still has something to give," Anderson added. "And thanks to the dedication of this amazing team, not only did Ingenuity overachieve beyond our wildest dreams, but also it may teach us new lessons in the years to come."

Ingenuity landed with NASA's life-hunting, sample-collecting Perseverance rover on the floor of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021.