'Goodbye': NASA Ingenuity Mars chopper's parting message to Earth
NASA's Ingenuity Mars chopper has sent its final message to Earth and will now serve as an immobile data-gathering unit on the red planet's surface, the American space agency said Tuesday.
[Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity together monitored a transmission from the history-making helicopter in a JPL control room on April 16. They confirmed the operation of a software patch that will allow the helicopter to act as a stationary testbed and collect data that could benefit future Mars explorers. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech)]
Washington: NASA's Ingenuity Mars chopper has sent its final message to Earth and will now serve as an immobile data-gathering unit on the red planet's surface, the American space agency said Tuesday.
"A long goodbye," NASA said on social media site X originally launched as Twitter.
Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Tuesday, April 16, to monitor a transmission from the history-making helicopter.
“With apologies to Dylan Thomas, Ingenuity will not be going gently into that good Martian night,” NASA quoted Josh Anderson, Ingenuity team lead at JPL, as saying in a report.
“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. 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", he added.
NASA had announced the end of NASA's Ingenuity Mars mission on January 25, 2024. But, the rotorcraft has remained in communication with the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover, which serves as a base station for Ingenuity.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter - Timeline
The tissue box-sized Ingenuity landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover and first lifted off the Martian surface on April 19, proving that powered, controlled flight on Mars was possible.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days. It however performed 72 flights and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while logging more than two hours of total flight time.
“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. 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", NASA said on April 16, 2024.
NASA announced the end of its Mars mission on January 25, 2024. The possible reason for the end of the mission was the damages that the helicopter’s rotor blades sustained during landing. While the helicopter remained upright and in communication with ground controllers, imagery of its January 18 flight sent to Earth indicated one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing, and it was no longer capable of flight, accrding to NASA.
Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic.
Post Comments