The National Aeronautic Association has awarded the coveted Collier Trophy to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team for “the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet, thereby opening the skies of Mars and other worlds for future scientific discovery and exploration.” The little drone with counter-rotating rotors has logged a total of 43 minutes of flight time in 24 flights on Mars since it was deployed by the Perseverance rover in 2021. Its first flight was on April 10, 2021, and after a few test flights it began acting as a science scout for the rover, checking out promising scientific targets and finding safe routes of travel. It’s also taken plenty of high res color photos.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/mars-helicopter-wins-collier-trophy