The first report of an air accident in another world: the reason for the crash of the Ingenioti helicopter was revealed

Ingenuity was the first flying vehicle to fly on another planet. This small helicopter, which was launched to the Red Planet with NASA’s Perseverance rover, performed amazingly and exceeded the expectations of its creators; But on January 18, 2024, Ingenuity suffered an accident and ended his career.

Now, nearly a year later, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and the aerospace company AeroEnvironment have completed their detailed assessment of what went wrong on the day of the accident, releasing the first investigation report of the crash on another world.

In their research, the researchers have come to the conclusion that the Ingenuity navigation system was the culprit of the accident. It is believed that this system, by not providing accurate data, caused a chain of events that led to the end of Ingenuity’s mission.

On its final flight, NASA’s Mars copter soared to a height of 12 meters, hovered in place, and photographed the sandy terrain below. In the 19th second of the flight, Ingenuity began its descent and 13 seconds later it landed on the surface of Mars; But unfortunately, he suffered damage to his wings.

The relatively barren terrain of the landing site was probably the cause of the helicopter downing. Without objects to track, the navigation system did not know its exact position, and this caused the Ingenuity to be moving horizontally when it landed. Finally, the helicopter overturned and all four blades broke.