---
title: "Photos Show Catastrophic Damage to Mars Helicopter"
description: "NASA shared pictures following its Ingenuity Mars helicopter's final flight, showing some gnarly damage to its four rotor blades."
date: "2024-01-31"
modified: "2024-01-31"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/photos-catastrophic-damage-mars-helicopter"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "ingenuity"
  - "mars"
  - "mars helicopter"
  - "the digest"
---

# Photos Show Catastrophic Damage to Mars Helicopter

![NASA shared pictures following its Ingenuity Mars helicopter's final flight, showing some gnarly damage to its four rotor blades.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/photos-catastrophic-damage-mars-helicopter.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA / Futurism\</em\>*

## Rotor Damage

Last week, NASA [announced](<https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends>) that its historic Ingenuity helicopter, which had taken flight on Mars an incredible 72 times since its maiden voyage in April 2021, had [died](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasas-mars-helicopter-has-died>).

The agency's Jet Propulsion Lab shared pictures following the rotorcraft's final flight, showing some gnarly damage — via the shadow its shattered rotor casts on the unearthly landscape.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mars_copter-damage-1200x890.webp>)

One picture even [appears to show](<https://twitter.com/AndySaunders_1/status/1750654715807891615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1750654715807891615%7Ctwgr%5Ee6c21e20b8d99a148ca0fe21f03b2a21578d654d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.futurism.com%2Fwp%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D310209action%3Dedit>) a small piece of the rotor lying on the dusty ground nearby.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ingerotor.jpg>)

You can also see the damage in a series of image strung together into a video:

https://twitter.com/landru79/status/1751976365237117224

"While the helicopter remains upright and in communication with ground controllers, imagery of its January 18 flight sent to Earth this week indicates one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing and it is no longer capable of flight," NASA wrote in its statement.

It's an unfortunate end to a groundbreaking mission, which proved once and for all that we're capable of taking flight on a distant planet.

## Coaxial Copter

It's a technological marvel that the four-pound helicopter lasted as long as it did. Its rotor blades were made of carbon fiber and arranged into two four-foot-long, counter-rotating rotors, which could spin up to around 2,400 revolutions per minute.

Thanks to the thin Martian atmosphere, the rotors had to spin [roughly ten times as fast](<https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/05/14/helicopter-to-accompany-nasas-next-mars-rover-to-red-planet/>) as they would have needed to back on Earth.

Scientists [carefully fine-tuned](<https://futurism.com/nasa-mars-helicopter>) the blades over years of testing, adjusting their weight and size while accommodating the extreme temperature swings and wind gusts on the Martian surface.

And given Ingenuity's incredible track record, their hard work clearly paid off. Originally intended as a technology demonstration, the rotorcraft was designed to fly up to five times over 30 days. In April 2021, it became the [first manmade object](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-video-nasa-mars-helicopter-dust>) to achieve powered, controlled flight on the surface of another planet, following up its maiden voyage with a dazzling total of 72 flights.

"The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a statement, commemorating the spacecraft's achievement. "That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best – make the impossible, possible."

**More on Ingenuity:** *[NASA's Mars Helicopter Has Died](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasas-mars-helicopter-has-died>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)