I love how well this little aircraft has worked out. The official mission for it was to validate an idea - to conduct five flights to demonstrate that it was possible, so that future missions could potentially include a little scout drone that could fly ahead and help find routes through difficult terrain. Then it worked so well that they started doing that on this mission, too - they’re past fifty flights now and have been using photos from Ingenuity to plan Perseverance’s next moves. The team who built this little drone must be thrilled.

It’s a slightly clickbaity headline, since it suggests this was a worrying problem, as opposed to part of the plan.

the recent silent spell, which the two mission teams had expected: The rover had disappeared behind a hill from the helicopter’s perspective, and it didn’t come back into view until June 28.

amazing little copter

The endurance of all the mars bots is staggering. Well done, engineers!