Engineers now say they understand the most likely cause of the Ingenuity helicopter's crash landing on Mars earlier this year ...

Ingenuity, NASA’s Mars Helicopter, surpassed expectations as the first aircraft to operate on another planet. Despite being designed for five test flights over 30 days, it completed 72 flights across ...

the rover sent back pictures showing the helicopter had sustained major damage to its rotors. Flight controllers initially suspected Ingenuity made a hard landing at a steep angle, causing its ...

The first aircraft to achieve a powered, controlled flight on another planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, crashed on Mars 11 months ago when its navigation system became befuddled by a bland, ...

Ahead of a full technical report that’s expected to be released in the next few weeks, engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and AeroVironment have revealed what’s believed to be ...

After almost three years of operating on the Red Planet, Ingenuity crashed during its 72nd flight on Jan. 18, 2024, suffering rotor damage that rendered it incapable of ever flying again.

[Related: RIP Mars Ingenuity, the ‘little helicopter that could’] The rotorcraft’s flying career ended on January 18, 2024, however, when a botched landing appeared to fatally damage its blades.

After mission command on Earth re-established the communication, it was discovered that Ingenuity had sustained damage to its rotors. "When running an accident investigation from 100 million miles ...

The purpose of the investigation was to ascertain the likely causes for Ingenuity’s final flight, as the team found damage to the helicopter’s rotor blades in images sent back to Earth. This ...

The investigation suggests that a failure in Ingenuity's navigation system led to a hard landing, causing the mission to end.

However, JPL scientists added that, aside from its mission-ending rotor damage, Ingenuity remains in otherwise good health. In fact, if you were to ask the helicopter itself, Ingenuity would ...