Transport & space · 2021

Ingenuity Mars helicopter

The first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Ingenuity, a 1.8 kg helicopter carried by the Perseverance rover, flew on 19 April 2021 in air about 1 percent as dense as Earth's. Planned for 5 flights, it made 72 before rotor damage ended it in 2024. It opened aerial scouting for planetary exploration.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Lithium-ion battery 1991
Practical helicopter 1939

Watch

First Video of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight, Includes Takeoff and Landing (High-Res)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · YouTube First Flight of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter: Live from Mission ControlNASA · YouTube

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Objects launched into space Latest: 4.51k per year (2025) Source: Our World in Data