Amazing what they’ve accomplished. However, I will state my standard nitpick: where’s the video of all this amazingness? Why aren’t we seeing spectacular “cockpit” views of the Martian landscape scrolling by? I find it truly puzzling that collecting video imagery apparently wasn’t a mission priority.
It actually makes sense because the Mars Helicopter was not expected to go more than 5 flights at best, within 30 Sols, as a proof-of-concept for flying on Mars. 1% of the atmosphere on Earth.
So, not like they were going to weigh it down any more than necessary.
The rover was going to continue on after the demo, and that would have been that because the helicopter communicates through the rover.
However, Ingenuity did so well that it is still able to keep flying and remain close to Perseverance, as the rover continues on its sample-collecting mission.
Of course, who trusts any government agency with anything anymore. At this point the performance really does seem too good to be true, but “usually” is not the same as “always”.
I’ve seen that very thing — the “if something seems too good to be true...” aphorism beating the odds, so...
Go Ginny Go Go Go!