NASA's Mars helicopter sends heart-warming final message back to Earth

Ingenuity, NASA's Mars helicopter was forced to end its mission after taking some critical damage in a landing, but the small helicopter will not be going gently into that good Martian night.

NASA landed its Mars helicopter in the Jezero Crater with its Mars rover named Perseverance in 2021, with the initial goal of Ingenuity being a flight demonstration. NASA simply wanted to see if flight was possible on another planet.

Ingenuity achieved this goal and became the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight. Ingenuity was only intended to make five flights, but went on to complete 72 across its three years of service, serving as a reconnaissance vehicle for Perseverance by scouting areas of interest and upcoming terrain which NASA can then use to map the safest path for Perseverance.

During its 72nd flight, Ingenuity's rotor blades were damaged, and now the helicopter will remain in "Valinor Hills" while Perseverance drives out of communication range. However, Ingenuity won't be completely inactive as it has received a software update from NASA that commands it to wake up every day to test the performance of its solar panels, batteries, and electronic equipment and then take a picture of the surface with its color camera and collect temperature data. NASA expects Ingenuity to be able to do this process for 20 years. If Ingenuity fails completely, the data will stay stored onboard the helicopter.

• Read more: NASA zooms in on the final resting place for its dead Mars helicopter

The team behind the Martian helicopter was recently gathered celebrating the end of Ingenuity's mission and received a message from Ingenuity. The message read all the names of the people who worked on the mission. The team at NASA JPL sent the message to Perseverance a day prior, which the rover then sent to Ingenuity who then sent it back to Earth.

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Additionally, the team at NASA had a gift for Ingenuity. The above video posted to the NASA Jet Propulsion YouTube channel states that throughout the helicopters mission on the Red Planet, Ingenuity received thousands of electronic postcards filled with "well wishes" from all around the world. The video shows members of the Ingenuity team reading some of the electronic postcards and giving their thoughts on how a small helicopter on the surface of Mars has inspired so many.

The success of Ingenuity has even inspired NASA to put more time into creating an advanced version of Ingenuity by expanding upon the rotorcraft design. NASA has even considered sending two specifically designed Ingenuity-like rotorcrafts to the surface of Mars to assist Perseverance in delivering its Mars samples to the rocket NASA plans on blasting off with on the surface of Mars. However, that plan has since fallen into jeopardy.