Mastodawn

Looks like we get Ingenuity class even without sample return. If we believe this anyway...

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-unveils-initiatives-to-achieve-americas-national-space-policy/

When SR-1 Freedom reaches Mars, it will deploy the Skyfall payload of Ingenuity‑class helicopters to continue exploring the Red Planet. SR-1 Freedom will establish flight heritage nuclear hardware, set regulatory and launch precedent, and activate the industrial base for future fission power systems across propulsion, surface, and long‑duration missions

NASA Unveils Initiatives to Achieve America’s National Space Policy - NASA

As part of its “Ignition” event on Tuesday, NASA announced a series of transformative agencywide initiatives designed to achieve President Donald J. Trump’s

NASA

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65dBnoise 3d ago

@Undertow
Thanks for the heads up. At first I thought that the article was just another one written or summarized by an AI, but the part about the #SkyFall mission of 3 #Ingenuity class helicopters was very hopeful indeed.

The concept of helicopters dropping off of their carrier in mid-air was an earlier proposal, IIRC. It's good that novel ideas keep progressing through the agency and will be tried again.

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Undertow 3d ago

@65dBnoise
I admit I searched the transcript of the press conference just to check NASA had actually said that. They even had a model of Ingenuity up front. Discussion of the mission from about 2 hrs 18 mins at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYH6W9iCs2E

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65dBnoise

@Undertow
Thanks. Yes, after your post, I found the two videos by NASA and am planning to watch them soon.