on Mars in January, but engineers just received its final transmission to Earth on April 16. The resilient machine sustained damage during a rough landing, but was still able to collect data and talk to its companion Perseverance rover. With Perseverance moving on, the communications link is severed. Ingenuity’s farewell message was a tribute to its team.
The rotorcraft now sits with a broken rotor blade in the Jezero Crater at a spot named Valinor Hills. The name comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” fantasy series. It’s an epic name for the All machines on Mars eventually die. The rotorcraft is solar-powered, so there’s a chance its solar panels could get covered in dust, choking out its power over time. Ingenuity will contend with the cold and windy conditions on Mars. Whatever data it collects will remain stored on board. “The team has calculated Ingenuity’s memory could potentially hold about 20 years’ worth of daily data,” NASA said.