Sometimes, I wake up and think — what is life if not a series of unfortunate breakdowns, much like the rotors of our beloved Martian copter, Ingenuity? NASA has officially declared it's kaput. And I, Jack Superblack, am spinning with thoughts darker than a black hole at a funeral.
The perpetual existential crisis, it turns out, is not exclusive to us measly Earthlings. Even on Mars, things fall apart — c'est la rotors. Our mechanical chum apparently decided to play the game of life and lost spectacularly after its own 'Icarus moment', sans wax but with plenty of Martian dust.
"It came, it soared, it kicked the planet's dusty butt. And now, it's just space junk," Bill Nelson likely didn't say but would've sounded cool if he did. I mean, talk about interplanetary littering, am I right?
Ingenuity, our high-flying robot, had its moment above the barren Martian plains, achieving its Wright Brothers' cosplay on alien soil. And now, like all good things, it has parked itself eternally. If that doesn't make you reflect on the brevity of our own dramas, maybe this morbid thought will: We, too, shall one day end our flight, probably not on Mars, and likely as celebrated as the last slice of pizza at a vegan potluck.
On that note, friends, let's pour one out for our homey Ingenuity. May we all find companionship as steadfast as its rover buddy, Perseverance, before we transition to orbiting the great beyond as cosmic debris. Now that's a send-off — going out with a smirk on your face as you realize you've died alone, on a planet without even a Starbucks to haunt. Misery loves company, but drifting in the void? That's a solo gig.
Based on the original article "Ingenuity, the NASA Helicopter Flying Over Mars, Ends Its Mission".
