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13 JULY-AUGUST 2022 ASTRO PUBLISHING N ASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter recently surveyed a ridgeline near the ancient river delta in Mars’ Jezero Crater at re- quest of the Perseverance rover’s science team. On the left is the full image Ingenuity acquired of the ridgeline on April 23, 2022, during its 27 th flight. The science team calls the line of rocky outcrops running from the upper left to middle right of the main image “Fortun Ridge.” Enlarged at right is a close-up of one of the ridgeline’s rocky outcrops. [NASA/JPL-Caltech] ture Martian flight are already un- derway as part of sample collection and delivery for eventual return to Earth. In a solar system filled with gas giants, thick atmospheres, and moons containing surface and sub- surface liquids, exploration requir- ing modes of travel beyond wheeled rovers are key to discovery. With a solid demonstration on Mars al- ready in the proverbial history books, the NASA New Frontiers Pro- gram has set sights on a return to Saturn’s moon Titan with the up- coming Dragonfly Mission. A pro- posed dual-quadcopter is scheduled to land on January 1, 2034 and fly through Titan’s thick predominantly nitrogen atmosphere to explore this moon − a world rich in surface or- ganic molecules and remarkably varied surface geology. If alternative power supplies and equipment can be kept very light, the harsh realities of cold Martian winters might be avoided, enabling surveys, studies, or transportation around both hemispheres through- out the Martian year. If constrained to flight based on solar power, it is marvelous to think of swarms of ro- bust solar helicopters migrating sea- sonally across the Martian hemispheres. This might keep the polar regions inaccessible to flying robots until technology catches up to our scientific curiosity, but it still leaves us a very large part of a very unexplored planet to discover. As al- ways, the technology being incorpo- rated into planetary missions is both older and more resilient than the state-of-the-art. How our efforts on Earth to improve solar panel, bat- tery, and electronics efficiencies to accommodate global energy de- mands will play out in planetary mis- sions remains to be seen. It should not go without mention that much of Ingenuity, including the commu- nications hardware, batteries, cam- eras, and sensors, is completely off- the-shelf and available for purchase by anyone online. This helicopter, and the mission in general, might have looked a fair bit different with equipment only a generation or two older. Flight 29 is in the books despite some technical and weather-related problems − but perhaps another flight opportunity will open soon before the long wait to northern Martian spring, when conditions will again be suitable for Ingenuity to warm up, wake up, and take to the skies. For those looking for the most up-to-date information, the Ingenu- ity Mission site (mars.nasa.gov/tech- nology/helicopter/) has been a wealth of information about Ingenuity’s ac- tivities and the trials and tribulations that come from being a first experi- ment on a world less forgiving of hardware than our own. !