Ingenuity (Mars Helicopter)
2021-2024
The first aircraft to fly on another planet. NASA's 1.8 kg Mars helicopter rode to Jezero Crater under the Perseverance rover and, on 19 Apr 2021, made the first powered, controlled flight in Mars's thin CO2 air - a world where it had to fly like a dragonfly in Earth's air.
Specs
1.8 kg; four carbon-fibre blades, 1.2 m rotor diameter; JPL with AeroVironment; delivered to Mars 18 Feb 2021 (underside of Perseverance); first flight 19 Apr 2021; a 5-flight technology demo (30 sols, up to 90 s, 3-5 m altitude) became 72 flights over 1,004 days; total time 2 h 8 m 48 s, covering more than 17 km; final flight 18 Jan 2024 - a rotor blade broke on landing.
Why it matters
A five-flight demo became 72: proof that autonomous flight works on another world, and the template for aerial scouts on Mars and beyond. The same thin atmosphere that makes helicopters hard there (~1% of Earth's air density) is exactly what the flight equations predicted - the physics worked on the first try, 225 million km from home.