Final images of Ingenuity reveal an entire blade broke off the helicopter

Enlarge / An image of Ingenuity captured by Perseverance's SuperCam RMI instrument. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/Simeon Schmauß)

It has now been several weeks since NASA's tenacious helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, made its final flight above the red planet.

This happened last month. On January 6, Ingenuity flew 40 feet (12 meters) skyward but then made an unplanned early landing after just 35 seconds. Twelve days later operators intended to troubleshoot the vehicle with a quick up-and-down test. Data from the vehicle indicated that it ascended to 40 feet again during this test, but then communications were ominously lost at the end of the flight.

On January 20 NASA reestablished communications with the helicopter, but the space agency declared an end to its flying days after an image of the vehicle's shadow showed that at least one of its blades had sustained minor damage. This capped an end to a remarkable mission during which Ingenuity exceeded all expectations.