The software will help Ingenuity with hazard avoidance when landing on the rocky Martian surface by generating digital elevation maps as it navigates on future flights.Next, Ingenuity will begin flying up the steep terrain of the ancient river delta, where water once flowed into Jezero crater more than 3 billion years ago.“Ingenuity’s success has led to NASA’s decision to take two Ingenuity class helicopters on the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander scheduled for later in this decade,” wrote Bob Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer emeritus, in a NASA blog update.“These Sample Recovery Helicopters, with wheels instead of feet, and a small manipulator arm with a two-fingered gripper, will, if needed, carry precious sample tubes from a sample cache depot back to the Mars ascent vehicle for launch back to Earth.Broken rock and dust could reveal more information about the environment and geological history of Mars — but it could also shed light on how that dust might impact solar panels, spacesuits and other items crewed missions to the red planet will require."