Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory speaks at an event marking NASA’s donation of the aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was the first to demonstrate it was possible to fly in a simulated Mars environment at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was donated to the museum on Friday. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory speaks at an event marking NASA’s donation of the aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was the first to demonstrate it was possible to fly in a simulated Mars environment at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was donated to the museum on Friday. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory speaks at an event marking NASA’s donation of the aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was the first to demonstrate it was possible to fly in a simulated Mars environment at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was donated to the museum on Friday. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Bob Balaram, Teddy Tzanetos and Havard Grip from the NASA Mars Helicopter project discuss the sequence of events for the day's flight testing. The image was taken Jan. 18, 2019. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23162

Ingenuity team lead Josh Anderson (seated left) and project manager Teddy Tzanetos (seated center) react during during the final shift for engineers working on NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 16, 2024. The team gathered to review a transmission from the helicopter that confirmed the operation of a software patch allowing Ingenuity to act as a stationary testbed and collect data that could benefit future explorers of the Red Planet. Originally designed as short-lived technology demonstration mission that would perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, the first aircraft on another world operated from the Martian surface for almost three years, flew more than 14 times farther than planned, and logged more than two hours of total flight time. Its 72nd and final flight was Jan. 18, 2024. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26315

Teddy Tzanetos, project manager for NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, addresses members of the team during their final shift at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 16, 2024. The team for the first aircraft on another world gathered to review a transmission that confirmed the operation of a software patch allowing Ingenuity to act as a stationary testbed and collect data that could benefit future explorers of the Red Planet. Originally designed as short-lived technology demonstration mission that would perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, the first aircraft on another world operated from the Martian surface for almost three years, flew more than 14 times farther than planned, and logged more than two hours of total flight time. Its 72nd and final flight was Jan. 18, 2024. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26316

Teddy Tzanetos, MiMi Aung and Bob Balaram of NASA's Mars Helicopter project observe a flight test. The image was taken on Jan. 18, 2019 as the flight model of the Mars Helicopter was tested in the Space Simulator, a 25-foot-wide (7.62 meter-wide) vacuum chamber at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23161

Members of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team stand next to the Collier Trophy during the Robert J. Collier Dinner in Washington on June 9, 2022. The team was awarded the 2021 Collier Trophy "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 award citation states. From left to right: Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity team lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Bob Balaram, Ingenuity emeritus chief engineer at JPL; MiMi Aung, former Ingenuity project manager at JPL; Bobby Braun, former director for Planetary Science at JPL; Larry James, deputy director at JPL; Håvard Grip, Ingenuity chief pilot at JPL. This historic trophy – which is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington – is awarded annually by the National Aeronautic Association "for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25323