Wonder if the rotor blades became brittle in the Martian atmosphere? It’s polar-cold at all times up there. The mean surface temperature on Mars is -80F.
That thought occurred to me at the beginning. But then the initial photos looked like impact happened that should not have happened, regardless of the condition of the materials.
Then after seeing this photo of the sand dunes, I could see how the rotors could have hit the ground... by whacking a ridge of sand from the side. And maybe the material had been weakened to make for a perfect storm.
Well, they did want to see what limits they could push. Directing Ginny over a blank canvas of sand was asking too much.