Does NASA still possess the means to get said helicopter to Mars?
Can they get astronauts to the ISS?
Do they have an extra set of space tools for the women astronauts?
You raise an excellent point.
The 'next generation' really needs to be able to fly itself there.
“”Does NASA still possess the means to get said helicopter to Mars?””
If the Hussein/Biden Regime would stop hindering SpaceX, who knows what type of flying machines could reach Mars. During President Trump’s administration, SpaceX would sometimes test and launch once a month. SpaceX has driven down the launch expenses with reusable rockets that the European Space Agency (ESA) has now contracted with SpaceX to launch at least 4 satellites. The ESA Ariane 5 rocket is retired, and the Ariane 6 is years behind schedule. If that were not bad enough, Ariane 6 is not reusable.
C’mon, Man!
Well I guess technically yes as they have that massively overpriced SLS, but to use that would be overkill for a Mars lander. For the last few decades NASA has been contracting out all their probe and lander launches anyway, A Falcon Heavy could easily launch a sizable lander, might be able to even launch a lighter one on a Falcon 9.