NASA's Mars Program Turns to Helicopters With No New Landers or Rovers Planned

With no new landers or rovers in NASA's Mars pipeline, helicopters have become the agency's main path to new surface exploration. NASA's cost estimate for the SR-1 Freedom sample return effort is $2.1 billion, a figure that does not include the helicopters themselves. The shift leaves the program dependent on a technology first demonstrated by Ingenuity.