[qayxc]

Careful, careful. The COTS part is a bit misleading as a great part of the total cost is in testing and certification. Some might be under the impression that JPL just took some COTS parts, stuck them on Ingenuity and that's that.

This is not the case. Of course every component had to be tested for space worthiness and possible interference with other systems. All that takes time, money, and specialised facilities.

It's also important to keep in mind that the helicopter was a technology demonstrator, a proof-of-concept that played no critical part in the overall mission. Its job was to perform one flight to show it can be done. It's a big difference if your components only need to do their job once, or if you have to have a guaranteed minimum endurance and the entire mission depends on them.