NASA - Mars Helicopter Ingenuity logo.
August 10, 2021
The prestigious honor recognizes the pioneering rotorcraft for its history-making flights on the Red Planet.
Image above: NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took the image on the left with its high-resolution color camera and the image on the right with its navigation camera during its 10th Flight, on July 24, 2021. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The “little helicopter that could” has garnered attention, fans, and numerous accolades, with the latest coming from Aviation Week Network in the form of a 2021 Laureate Award. The Laureate Awards honor “extraordinary achievements in aerospace.”
When the 4-pound (1.8 kilogram) rotorcraft hovered on Mars for 39.1 seconds on April 19, 2021, it was the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet – a true Wright brothers moment. Since then, Ingenuity has chalked up 11 flights, with a total distance of just over 1 mile (2.2 kilometers), reaching an altitude record of 40 feet (12 meters) in its 10th sortie.
Ingenuity hitched a ride to the Red Planet on Perseverance, which landed on Feb. 18 2021. It was designed as a technology demonstration and carries no science payloads on board. Its mission was to prove that humanity can fly powered vehicles on Mars.
Artist's view of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
After Ingenuity achieved its tech demo goals, the helicopter entered its current operations demonstration phase to test its abilities as an aerial explorer, quickly imaging and scouting areas of Mars. This capability has proven useful to Perseverance operators and scientists. During its most recent flights, Ingenuity has surveyed areas of particular interest for Perseverance to potentially explore in its hunt for signs of ancient life.
“The helicopter has succeeded in ways the Ingenuity team could only have imagined at the outset of this project,” said Ingenuity Operations Lead Teddy Tzanetos. “The small but mighty team behind this small but mighty rotorcraft is, needless to say, thrilled at its success and honored for the acknowledgment. We’re also eager to see what comes next with the operations demonstration.”
The helicopter is paving the way for possible future missions that could use rotorcraft to help scout, explore, and even carry science payloads on other worlds.
The Laureate award will be presented at a ceremony in October in McLean, Virginia. Full list of 2021 Laureate Award winners: https://laureates.aviationweek.com/en/winners/2021-winners.html
More About Ingenuity
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance.
At NASA Headquarters, Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. At JPL, MiMi Aung is the project manager and J. (Bob) Balaram is chief engineer.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
For more information about Ingenuity:
https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit and https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA//JPL/DC Agle/Written by Jane Platt.
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