NASA: Pair of Ingenuity-Inspired Helicopters Will be Part of Mars Sample Return Mission Written 29 July 2022

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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captures record flight. | Credit: NASA JPL; YouTube; framegrab

CNET News reports that NASA said Wednesday a pair of rotorcraft inspired by the Ingenuity helicopter “will be a key component of a mission to bring pristine Martian rock samples from the Jezero Crater to Earth.” The Mars Sample Return project “was going to involve a rover that could fetch the samples but would’ve required its own lander. The change to helicopters was made during the conceptual design phase of the mission.” NASA’s Perseverance rover is “gathering up small samples of Mars rocks and stashing them in tubes for safekeeping. The Mars Sample Return mission, or MSR, is a complex and ambitious project that’ll involve landing on Mars, picking up the tubes, rocketing them off the planet and delivering them to a spacecraft in orbit. NASA is working with the European Space Agency on the program.” 
Full Story (CNET News)