The helicopter that accompanied NASA’s Perseverance rover was named Ingenuity.
Ingenuity traveled to Mars attached to the underside of Perseverance, which landed in Jezero crater on February 18, 2021. The helicopter was built as a technology demonstration to test whether powered, controlled flight was possible in Mars’s extremely thin atmosphere. Because radio signals take several minutes to cross the distance between Earth and Mars, Ingenuity flew autonomously using flight plans uploaded by engineers.
Its first flight on April 19, 2021, was historic: it was the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another planet. NASA initially planned only five flights during a 30-sol demonstration, but Ingenuity greatly exceeded that goal, completing 72 flights over nearly three years.
The name came from Vaneeza Rupani, a high-school student whose winning suggestion was selected in NASA’s rover-naming contest. Ingenuity was not a science rover and carried cameras rather than scientific instruments. Its role was to scout terrain and demonstrate aerial exploration. Rotor damage during its 72nd flight in January 2024 permanently ended the mission.