72/5 on my birthday
The NASA Ingenuity mars helicopter has taken its last flight, on 18 January. It was designed for 5 flights, and managed 72. It was expected to last 30 days, and actually lasted almost 3 years. It flew over 14 times farther than planned, and survived Martian winter conditions. It is likely that the internal temperatures dropped to -80 C on many occasions. Most amazingly to me, it managed all this in an atmosphere about 1% the density of ours while gathering power from sunlight less than half as intense as here.
This is NASA at its best.
Here's the official announcement from NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends/
What can be learned from this? First and foremost, we can achieve amazing things when we set out to do so. Second, the name of the associated rover, Perseverance, is completely appropriate. It took perseverance to overcome the many challenges that Mars throws at our technology.
When we do finally arrive on Mars in our own bodies rather than via our robotic emissaries, we will not succeed the first time. There will be human bodies desiccating in the dry Martian atmosphere. Perhaps that is how the owner of SpaceX will achieve immortality.
I'm not sure how to feel about that!
Perseverance and Ingenuity in aid of humanity's long-term prospering is core to who we are. Let us not concentrate on the negatives of our current reality. Rather, let us use our Ingenuity and Perseverance to spread intelligent life throughout the Cosmos.