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LiveScience
LiveScience
Harry Baker

NASA's downed Ingenuity helicopter has a 'last gift' for humanity — but we'll have to go to Mars to get it

A photo of Ingenuity on the Martian surface.

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has beamed back its final message to Earth, which included a heart-warming goodbye to mission scientists. The record-breaking robot will now spend the rest of its days collecting data that could be used in future Mars missions — but only if future robots or astronauts go all the way to the Red Planet to get it.

The pigeon-size helicopter, or rotorcraft, first landed on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, alongside the Perseverance rover, and it successfully completed the first-ever powered flight on an alien world on April 19 of the same year. 

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