Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny, is an autonomous helicopter that operated on Mars from 2021 to 2024 as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. Ingenuity made its first flight on 19 April 2021, demonstrating that flight is possible in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and became the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extraterrestrial flight. It was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Labo The skepticism on the part of NASA leadership was not unfounded. Scientists, engineers and managers proceeded from a pragmatic comparison of the benefits of additional aerial reconnaissance with the costs that inevitably fall on the schedule for the rover to complete all the tasks assigned to it. During a live stream from NASA, MiMi Aung, the Ingenuity Project Manager, and Jennifer Trosper discussed the value of Ingenuity. Trosper argued that the Perseverance rover would outpace the helicopter due to its auto-navigation capability, thus negating one of central arguments for the value to the mission of the helicopter. At the end of the test window, NASA extended support for Ingenuity for another 30 sols, limiting the frequency of departures to one flight every few weeks. On 14 June 2021, the Director of the Mars Exploration program, E. Janson, and the Principal Mars Explorer, M. Meyer, directly addressed all the staff of the Mars 2020 project. During this address they cautioned the staff to keep their Ingenuity enthusiasm in check, and concentrate on collecting samples. On the same date, in their report to the Planetary Advisory Committee (PAC), the helicopter was mentioned only in the past tense, e.g. "...placed Ingenuity and completed the technology demonstration phase...". Despite this early pessimism, Ingenuity proved to be more than capable of keeping up with Perseverance, actually staying ahead of the rover for the majority of the traverse up the Jezero delta. During the latter half of 2022, insufficient solar energy during the Martian winter hampered the operations NASA spent about $80 million to build Ingenuity and about $5 million to operate the helicopter. In 2019, preliminary designs of Ingenuity were tested on Earth in simulated Mars atmospheric and gravity conditions. For flight testing, a large vacuum chamber was used to simulate the very low pressure of the atmosphere of Mars—filled with carbon dioxide to about 0.60% (about 1⁄160) of standard atmospheric pressure at sea level on Earth—which is roughly equivalent to a helicopter flying at 34,000 m In order to simulate the much-reduced gravity field of Mars (38% of Earth's), 62% of Earth's gravity was offset by a line pulling upwards during flight tests. A "wind-wall" consisting of almost 900 computer fans was used to provide wind in the chamber. In April 2020, the vehicle was named Ingenuity by Vaneeza Rupani, a girl in the 11th grade at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, who submitted an essay into NASA's "Name the Rover" contest. Known in planning stages as the Mars Helicopter Scout, or simply the Mars Helicopter, the nickname Ginny later entered use in parallel to the parent rover Perseverance being affectionately referred to as Percy. Key personnel include: MiMi Aung – Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Bob Balaram – Chief Engineer (prior to Nov 2021) Timothy Canham – Flight Software Lead and Operations Lead (prior to June 2021) Håvard Fjær Grip – GNC Lead and Chief Pilot Matt Keennon – AeroVironment Technical Lead Loay Elbasyouni – Lead Electrical and Power Electronics Engineer. Prior to flight 34, the software was updated to avoid hazards during landing and to correct a navigation error when traveling over uneven terrain. This update became necessary as the helicopter traveled away from the relatively flat terrain of the original landing site, and towards more varied and hazardous terrain. === Specifications === == Operational history == === Primary mission === Perseverance dropped the debris shield protecting Ingenuity on 21 March 2021, and the helicopter deployed from the underside of the rover to the Martian surface on 3 April 2021. That day both cameras of the helicopter were tested taking their first black-and-white and color photographs of the floor of Jezero Crater in the shadow of the rover. After deployment, the rover drove about 100 m (330 ft) away from the drone to allow a safe flying zone. Ingenuity's rotor blades were unlocked on 8 April 2021, (mission sol 48), and the helicopter performed a low-speed rotor spin test at 50 rpm. A high-speed spin test was attempted on 9 April, but failed due to the expiration of a watchdog timer, a software measure to protect the helicopter from incorrect operation in unforeseen conditions. On 12 April, JPL said it identified a software fix to correct the problem. This lowered the atmospheric density, which required higher rotor speed for flight: probably 2700 rpm, according to the flight team's calculations. JPL said this might cause dangerous vibration, power consumption, and aerodynamic drag if the blade tips approach the speed of sound. So the flight team commanded Ingenuity to test the rotor at 2800 rpm while remaining on the ground. In mid-September, the flight team began preparing for the Martian winter and solar conjunction, when Mars moves behind the Sun (as viewed from earth), blocking communications with Earth and forcing the rover and helicopter to halt operations. The very thin atmosphere of Mars does not allow repeating the maneuvers and landing techniques of terrestrial helicopters. === Mars Science Helicopter === Data collected by Ingenuity is intended to support the development of future helicopters capable of carrying larger payloads. The Mars Science Helicopter task is the next evolutionary step for Martian rotorcraft at JPL. The key focus is to develop the technology needed to deploy science payloads, between 0.5 and 2.0 kg (1 and 4 lb), on rotorcraft platforms at the surface of Mars.