Relying on remote data, including photographs taken after the flight, the investigators believe that “navigation errors created high horizontal velocities at touchdown,” which most likely resulted in Ingenuity experiencing a “hard impact on the sand ripple’s slope,” causing it to pitch and roll.

"When running an accident investigation from 100 million miles away, you don't have any black boxes!" NASA's Håvard Grip said.

A new NASA report finally reveals the most likely cause behind the tragic crash of the Mars helicopter, Ingenuity.

The first aircraft to achieve a powered, controlled flight on another planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, crashed on Mars 11 months ago when its navigation system became befuddled by a bland, featureless stretch of terrain and slammed so hard into the Martian surface that the tips of its rotor blades snapped.

Ingenuity may never fly above the surface of Mars again, but the downed helicopter is otherwise healthy and could serve as a weather station for decades, JPL says.

Ingenuity rode to Mars attached to the Perseverance rover's belly. Unlike the rover, which was built from expensive custom hardware designed to withstand the rigors of space exploration, Ingenuity was built from off-the-shelf components like a Snapdragon 801 smartphone processor.

The Ingenuity helicopter flew on Mars for an incredible 72 flights. Now, NASA has shared findings of why the mission came to an end.