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VIDEO

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023. WATCH VIDEO

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Helicopter Highlights

Helicopter Highlights

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has completed 55 flights since first taking to the skies above the Red Planet on April 19, 2021, far exceeding its originally planned technology demonstration of up to five flights. The many highlights of Ingenuity's historic and successful activities on Mars include:

The first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet, a feat that's been called a "Wright Brothers moment"

Completing 97.9 flying minutes, covering 7.8 miles (12.5 km), and reaching altitudes as high as 59.1 ft (18.0 m)

Successfully flying in the extremely thin Martian atmosphere

Previewing areas of Mars of possible interest for the Perseverance rover to explore

Paving the way for future aerial explorers at Mars and, potentially, other space destinations

Quick Facts

Main Job
A technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars. The helicopter rode to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover.

Launch
July 30, 2020, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

Landed
Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

Length of Mission
Technology demonstration complete; transitioned to new operations demo phase

Taking Flight on Another World

The Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, is a technology demonstration to test powered, controlled flight on another world for the first time. It hitched a ride to Mars on the Perseverance rover. Once the rover reached a suitable "airfield" location, it released Ingenuity to the surface so it could perform a series of test flights over a 30-Martian-day experimental window.

The helicopter completed its technology demonstration after three successful flights. For the first flight on April 19, 2021, Ingenuity took off, climbed to about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground, hovered in the air briefly, completed a turn, and then landed. It was a major milestone: the very first powered, controlled flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and, in fact, the first such flight in any world beyond Earth. After that, the helicopter successfully performed additional experimental flights of incrementally farther distance and greater altitude.

With its tech demo complete, Ingenuity transitions to a new operations demonstration phase to explore how future rovers and aerial explorers can work together.

Meet the Martians

Meet some of the team members behind the Ingenuity helicopter

MORE PROFILES
Flight Log

Anatomy of the Mars Helicopter

' Hover' or ' click' on the orange dots to learn about the parts on the Mars Helicopter.

Use links to show or hide all the labels.

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The Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration to test powered flight on another planet for the first time.

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NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will look for signs of past microbial life, cache rock and soil samples, and prepare for future human exploration.

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Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

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Behind the Scenes at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab 

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Behind the Scenes at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab 

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Here's a look at Perseverance's "twin"

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Twin of NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Now on the Move

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NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is traveling to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover and must safely detach to begin the first attempt at powered flight on another planet. Tests done at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Space show the sequence of events that will bring the helicopter down to the Martian surface.

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Testing the Mars Helicopter Delivery System on NASA's Perseverance Rover

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The Insane Engineering of the Perseverance Rover

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And BEFORE there was Perseverance, there was Curiosity: A Web VR Experience 

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And BEFORE there was Perseverance, there was Curiosity: A Web VR Experience 

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Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral in November 2011.

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NASA, JPL, and Google bring the real surface of Mars to your browser.

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7 Minutes to Mars: NASA's Perseverance Rover Attempts Most Dangerous Landing Yet

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7 Minutes to Mars: NASA's Perseverance Rover Attempts Most Dangerous Landing Yet

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7 Minutes to Mars: NASA's Perseverance Rover Attempts Most Dangerous Landing Yet

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A camera aboard the Perseverance rover captured this hi-resolution image of the historic Mars landing (Credit: NASA,/Public domain/ Wikimedia Commons)

The NASA Perseverance rover's 293 million mile (472 million km) journey to Mars ended successfully on February 18, 2021, with a picture-perfect landing inside the Jezero Crater. The car-sized, six-wheeled rover, nicknamed Percy, is the US space agency's biggest and most advanced explorer to date. Its primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars.

"Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life!" Swati Mohan, the guidance, navigation, and controls (GN&C) operations lead for the Perseverance mission, declared at about 3:55 p.m. EST. Upon hearing the confirmation, the anxiously-waiting double-masked engineers in the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) broke out into cheers. Moments later, the hazard cameras attached to the spacecraft sent back a clear black-and-white image of the Martian surface with the rover lurking in the shadow.

An image of Mars' surface with the rover in the shadows (Credit: NASA,/Public domain/ Wikimedia Commons)

Though NASA scientists made it look easy, landing on Mars is extremely tricky. The Red Planet's gravitational pull causes approaching spacecraft to accelerate to high speeds, while its thin atmosphere - just 1 percent that of Earth's - does little to help dissipate the energy and slow it down as it approaches the surface.

The scientists had to use a series of tricky maneuvers to reduce Percy's 12,000 mph (19,000 kmh) speed to a safe landing speed of less than five mph - in just six and a half minutes. The target entry angle also had to be a precise 12 degrees - any steeper, and the spacecraft would burn up; any flatter, and it would bounce off the atmosphere and get lost in space. It is no wonder that the final approach is often referred to as the "seven minutes of terror."

Upon attaining a manageable speed, Percy briefly hovered over the Martian surface to seek out the perfect landing spot. Its sophisticated navigation system rapidly scanned the area and matched it with maps in its database to find the optimal location. The spacecraft then used its hovering-landing sky crane system to gently alight on flat ground just 114 feet (35 meters) away from hazardous boulders. "We did successfully find that parking lot and have a safe rover on the ground," said Allen Chen, the head of the rover's landing team at JPL.

The arrow indicates Perseverance's landing spot (Credit: NASA/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons)

The NASA scientists will spend the next two months testing Percy's state-of-the-art scientific instruments. Once ready, the rover will begin its two-year-long mission to explore the ancient crater's lakebed and river delta - which scientists believe were once filled with water - for fossilized microscopic Martian life. The rock and sediment samples collected will be carefully stored and brought back to Earth for analysis in subsequent missions, conducted in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).

"Perseverance is the most sophisticated robotic geologist ever made, but verifying that microscopic life once existed carries an enormous burden of proof," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "While we'll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more capable laboratories and instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples carry evidence that Mars once harbored life."

Whether Percy succeeds in finding any evidence of ancient alien life remains to be seen. However, we can look forward to some spectacular footage of the Red Planet from the rover's 19 high-definition cameras. Since they are also equipped with microphones, we will also be able to hear - for the first time - what Mars really sounds like.

Resources: Mars.NASA.gov

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NASA's Perseverance Rover Successfully Lands On The Red Planet

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The NASA Perseverance rover's 293 million mile (472 million km) journey to Mars ended successfully on February 18, 2021, with a picture-perfect landing inside the Jezero Crater. The car-sized, six-wheeled rover, nicknamed Percy, is the US space agency's biggest and most advanced explorer to date.

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