NASA's downed Ingenuity helicopter has a 'last gift' for humanity — but we'll have to go to Mars to get it

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has beamed back its final message to Earth, which included a heart-warming goodbye to mission scientists.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)Ingenuity mission scientists gathered in a control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) in California to celebrate and analyze the helicopter's final message, which was received via NASA's Deep Space Network, made up of ground stations located across the globe.

In addition to the remaining data files, Ingenuity sent the team a goodbye message including the names of all the people who worked on the mission.

The helicopter, which still has power, will now spend the rest of its days collecting data from its final landing spot in Valinor Hills, named after a location in J.R.R.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)However, the data will be kept on board the helicopter and not beamed back to Earth, so it must be retrieved by future Martian vehicles or astronauts.

"It is almost unbelievable that after over 1,000 Martian days on the surface, 72 flights, and one rough landing, she still has something to give," Josh Anderson, leader of the Ingenuity team at JPL, said in the statement.