Ingenuity: Mars's Flying Robot

Mars · robotics · space exploration · engineering

Tiny but mighty. Ingenuity is about the size of a tissue box and weighs less than 4 pounds, making it one of the smallest aircraft ever built.

Flying on Mars. On April 19, 2021, Ingenuity made history by flying in Mars's extremely thin atmosphere, which has only about 1% of Earth's air pressure.

Autonomous explorer. The helicopter flew itself without a human pilot controlling it in real time, using its own onboard computer to navigate and stay balanced.

Built by a team. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed Ingenuity with help from companies like AeroVironment and NASA's other research centers.

Longer than expected. Ingenuity was supposed to fly just five times over a month, but it kept working for nearly three years until it finally stopped in 2024.