Ingenuity has little value in research but has some. It is a proof of concept and has succeeded in the extreme. In the future bigger copters, more payload and scientific instrumentation. Thus we pick the areas of great interest and send a rover there. It is a win win. Today our rovers go to areas we think are of interest from orbital cameras. Most areas just become more of the same and a waste of time. With the “Mars Chopper” we can explore many areas and cross them off the list of importance and no need for a rover to go there. Areas of interest will be explored by the Rovers.
PS
At our present level of technology man should not explore Mars. We could put a man on Mars at a cost of Trillions and then return him. That is stupid (can you hear me Elon Musk). That same amount of money utilizing robotic missions to Mars and also the Moon would return multiple times scientific information than a maned mission.
It is all about cost of payload to orbit, cost of a vehicle that will sustain human life, and cost of the vehicle to return to Earth.
If Elon Musk want to do this on his dime, that is okay. I do not want to pay for it with tax money as is for his Tesla. HE DOES MAKE SUPERIOR ROCKETS!
For the US, yes stupid; for the Chinese no. And that’s why they will take the high ground.
We need to save our US tax money for important things like CRT studies, sex change operations, broadening gender studies, and supplying free stuff and housing to the homeless and illegal aliens. Screw manned missions above 50,000 feet.