The Perseverance spacecraft has sent back images of its “deceased” companion.
In recently released images by NASA, the Ingenuity spacecraft – a helicopter-like robot – lies motionless on the barren Martian desert. It has officially been declared to have completed its mission of searching for extraterrestrial life.
The small Ingenuity rests among the sand dunes of the “habitable” Jezero Crater, never to fly again – (Photo: NASA)
According to Space.com, the image was captured by Ingenuity’s companion, the Perseverance rover, at 1:05 PM local time on February 4th on Mars.
Previously, Ingenuity unexpectedly lost contact with NASA in mid-January 2024. The incident was later determined to be caused by a crash during landing.
Although communication was reestablished with Earth via Perseverance, an image sent from Mars revealed the shadow of a broken rotor, leading NASA to conclude that Ingenuity would never fly again on January 25th.
The image reveals the damaged rotor – (Photo: NASA).
Since Ingenuity’s accident, Perseverance has not given up searching for its unfortunate friend.
Teddy Tzanetos, the Ingenuity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), stated that the entire team is proud and happy with what their “little one” has accomplished.
Indeed, while the recently released image serves as the final confirmation of Ingenuity’s “death,” it has completed its mission far beyond expectations.
This small helicopter and its companion Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021. Both have the mission of searching for extraterrestrial life in the Jezero Crater, an area that once hosted a lake and ancient river plains.
Ingenuity’s mission was to perform exploratory flights to assist the larger, slower Perseverance, which carries many scientific instruments, in its quest for life.
Ingenuity was originally assigned a primary mission of 30 days, while Perseverance’s primary mission spans nearly two years.
However, the robotic helicopter has flown tirelessly for the past three years, while Perseverance remains in excellent condition and may continue its Martian explorations for many more years to come.
NASA also boasts another “immortal” warrior, Curiosity, which is a rover-like lander similar to Perseverance but an older version, operating on Mars since 2011 and still “going strong.”
