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The fascinating thing is that it wasn't a primary part of the mission but got lots of excitement. For me it was the thing that it features many off-the shelf parts from smartphones, uses linux and other open source software and it beat the expectations on how long it will service - Planned ~30 days with 5 flights and it did almost 3 years with 72 flights. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/after-three-years-on-mars-...

There was extreme media coverage of the helicopter, live streams, twitter accounts, and scientists talking every day in media about if they could get another flight out of the copter. It was a huge media moment

> TIL the rover had a tissue-box-sized helicopter (!!) on it

Wait until you find out that the helicopter carried a small piece of fabric from the wing of the 1903 Wright Flyer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Wright_Brother...