Mars Helicopter Team’s Final Gathering for Ingenuity Data Downlink

B-roll for media and public use. On April 16, 2024, NASA’s Ingenuity team gathered in mission control at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to celebrate the Mars helicopter’s accomplishments and complete one final “downlink poll,” a group opportunity to monitor a transmission from the helicopter. Ingenuity became the first vehicle to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet when it took to the Martian skies on April 19, 2021. It flew for the final time on Jan. 18, 2024. The following is a list of team members who appear in the Ingenuity commemoration video, in order of appearance: ● Josh Anderson - Ingenuity Team Lead, JPL ● Martin Cacan - Ingenuity Chief Pilot, JPL ● Jaakko Karras - Ingenuity Chief Engineer Emeritus, JPL ● Harel Dor - Ingenuity Deputy Operations Lead, JPL ● Dave Lavery - Ingenuity Program Executive, NASA HQ ● Teddy Tzanetos - Ingenuity Project Manager, JPL Though its flying days are over, Ingenuity’s computer and cameras are still functioning. So, while members of the helicopter team are moving on to other projects at JPL, Ingenuity has been programmed to take additional images and temperature measurements and transmit them to the nearby Mars Perseverance rover for as long as it can. After the rover goes out of communications range, the data will be recorded in the helicopter’s onboard memory. Engineers hope to get additional data to characterize the ongoing performance of the helicopter’s various components. Designed to be a technology demonstration that would make no more than five test flights in 30 days, Ingenuity far surpassed expectations, soaring higher and faster than previously imagined and eventually completing 72 flights. For more information on Ingenuity, visit: go.nasa.gov/ingenuity. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What is said in the film

Welcome to our final downlink. since this is our final vehicle assessment, I've invited all of our subsystems to share some of their thoughts and know look back over the course of the mission and also look forward to the future. know, from proof of concept on earth, you know, to our first flight on Mars, we really, you know, prove the technology. And then 72 flights on Mars really pushed what we could do, push the terrain, we could fly over, push the capabilities of the helicopter and, you know, set new records all along the way, while better understanding how we actually flew on Mars. I think I speak for everyone when I say that never in our wildest dreams did we think that our little ingenuity with its commercial avionics components would last this long and operate through all Martian seasons, multiple years on the surface, it's it's simply remarkable.

And it has been awesome to be a part of this with all of you. Thank you. I'm here to report. I mean, there is absolutely no reason to continue these kind of activities. So we've sent a file thanking all of the operations team, and it begins with this message from us to ingenuity.

Thanks, Ingenuity for 72 amazing plates. Press button down our hills. And finally, Ingenuity's message to Earth, to Mars and the rest of the solar system. I mean, those that kind of next source to even greater heights. Over the course of Ingenuity's development and operations, there are countless points that could have easily marked the end of the mission and the fact that ingenuity made it safely to Mars.

With 72 flights traveling over 17 kilometers. That's not just luck. It's not an accident. It's you all here and all nine, and you're relentless determination to hold on to that dream and bring it into reality, We have talked several times over the course of this project about this being a Wright brothers moment and drawing comparisons between what you have done and the Wright brothers and their amazing achievement I hope. Now, if you haven't had a chance to yet, you have a chance to sit back and realize you've done something that has fundamentally changed the world in our understanding of how we will explore.

It was said before as well. You've built a new paradigm we're going to be able to use from here on out in perpetuity. You had done the very first and everyone else who comes after is going to look at this experience and what you've achieved and say, I get to do now what I do because of what you guys have done and achieved. It's been the honor of my life to work with each of you on this. On this special collective dream that we've had.

This dream of flying for the first time ever. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the sacrifices that each of you have made and for your trust in the team. All right. Thank you for never saying no, for never giving up on the team and for always putting that shared dream of first flight, first instead of congratulations. I offer the most important thing I can think of, which is a quiet moment for us to realize the magnitude of the accomplishment that has now passed.

Starting today, the decade long gamble, which became a 30 sol sprint, which then became an indeterminate long marathon, is now over. Take a few seconds to look around and at the screen of the folks dialed in on WebEx and look at each, your teammates and so on. All right. It may be many years before we have a shot at this feeling again. And although our mission is endi Thank you all for the journey of a lifetime.

Thank you to the Perseverance team and thank you. Ingenuity.

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