Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Full title: "The First Aircraft Crash Investigation on Another World – Results, and Legacy of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and the Future of Exo-Atmospheric Aviation"
This press conference was recorded at AGU's 2024 Annual Meeting on 11 December 2024.
The Wright Brothers were the first to perform a powered-controlled flight on Earth. They were also the first to crash. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was first to perform powered-controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity was also the first to crash on another planet. Unanswered questions have swirled around what happened on that sol (Martian day) in Jezero Crater.
Originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to 5 test flights over 30 days, the first aircraft on another world operated from the Martian surface for almost three years, where it performed 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while logging more than two hours of total flight time.
To better understand what occurred in Mars’ crimson skies on that final flight, JPL assembled a team of experts. Their work constitutes the first investigation of the crash of an aircraft flying somewhere other than Earth.
The results of the investigation – which will appear in a publicly-available NASA white paper on the same date (or soon after). These results are expected to help in the design and planning of future aircraft missions to other worlds.
Also to be covered is the future of exo-atmospheric aviation including the progress of NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.
Panelists:
Lindsay Hays, NASA HQ
Travis Brown, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Havard Grip, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Teddy Tzanetos, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Full title: "The First Aircraft Crash Investigation on Another World – Results, and Legacy of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and the Future of Exo-Atmospheric Aviation"
This press conference was recorded at AGU's 2024 Annual Meeting on 11 December 2024.
The Wright Brothers were the first to perform a powered-controlled flight on Earth. They were also the first to crash. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was first to perform powered-controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity was also the first to crash on another planet. Unanswered questions have swirled around what happened on that sol (Martian day) in Jezero Crater.
Originally designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to 5 test flights over 30 days, the first aircraft on another world operated from the Martian surface for almost three years, where it performed 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned while logging more than two hours of total flight time.
To better understand what occurred in Mars’ crimson skies on that final flight, JPL assembled a team of experts. Their work constitutes the first investigation of the crash of an aircraft flying somewhere other than Earth.
The results of the investigation – which will appear in a publicly-available NASA white paper on the same date (or soon after). These results are expected to help in the design and planning of future aircraft missions to other worlds.
Also to be covered is the future of exo-atmospheric aviation including the progress of NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.
Panelists:
Lindsay Hays, NASA HQ
Travis Brown, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Havard Grip, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Teddy Tzanetos, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
