Keith’s note: You’ll never hear about this from NASA – but WBUR’s “OnPoint” program just covered the amazing saga of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter [Listen here]. I’ve listened to lots of space coverage – for a very long time – as a young boy and not so young adult. I have to say, “on Point” host Meghna Chakrabarti did a truly masterful interview with the Ingenuity team. Not only did she do her homework in advance, but she took the time to tease out the special little things from the team that made this little project a big success. More below.

WRT that whole #Mars helicopter thing. How it started. How it's going. H/T @SciAstro (John Grunsfeld) who pushed really hard to make this happen. #Ingenuity #countdowntomars pic.twitter.com/vKSUFkzgZw — MarsToday (@marstoday) April 19, 2021

Keith’s note: NASA JPL and NASA SMD recently put out a press release “6 Things to Know About NASA’s Mars Helicopter on Its Way to Mars“. Helicopters. Hmmm .. that’s aeronautics. You’d think that the Aeronautics part of NASA would be mentioned. The word “aeronautics” appears nowhere. Nor is anything related to aeronautics on NASA’s various websites linked to. If you go to the JPL press kit link for Ingenuity […]