Perseverance takes photos of Ingenuity helicopter and broken rotor 15 metres away

“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end. That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best – make the impossible possible. Through missions like Ingenuity, NASA is paving the way for future flight in our solar system and smarter, safer human exploration to Mars and beyond,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a press statement.

Now, the snapped blade of the helicopter lies about 15 metres away from the defunct helicopter, according to the Planetary Society. Geovisual designer Simeon Schmauß took images from the Perseverance rover and put together a mosaic with a view that shows both the helicopter and the blade that is far away from it.

The accident happened on January 18 this year when the Ingenuity team decided to make a short vertical hop to determine its exact location after an emergency landing during a previous flight. Telemetry data from the rotorcraft showed it achieved its maximum altitude of 12 metres and hovered there for 4.5 seconds before it started descending rapidly with a velocity of about one metre per second.

And when it was about one metre above the surface, ground controllers lost communications with Ingenuity. Perseverance was used to observe the damage that happened but NASA is still investigating the exact cause.