"NASA's Perseverance Rover Locates Ingenuity Helicopter in Mars' 'Undying Lands'"

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's final resting place on Mars has been named "Valinor Hills" after the fictional location in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The spot was chosen by the Ingenuity team as a nod to the fantasy novels. Ingenuity made 72 flights on Mars before its last flight on Jan. 18, 2024, and its flying days are over due to damage to its blades. The Perseverance rover, which captured images of Ingenuity's final airfield, will continue its mission of collecting samples for a possible Mars sample return mission in the 2030s. NASA plans to deploy flying sentinels on future missions, including two fetch helicopters on the MSR mission plan, pending budgetary considerations.