Throughout yet one more profitable flight over the floor of Mars in Jezero Crater on 4 August 2021, JPL’s Ingenuity helicopter captured its robotic companion Perseverance on digicam off within the distance. The picture above, shared by NASA on 11 August 2021, reveals a view from Ingenuity taken from about 12 meters up with its shadow seen at middle on the backside, its touchdown ft poking in a bit on both aspect, and close to the highest (I included the arrow for help) a handful of pixels that reveals the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
On the time Perseverance was about 500 meters away.
“Ingenuity’s aerial pictures are superior – however even higher while you get to play ‘The place’s Perseverance?’ with them. As soon as you discover our rover and zoom in, you may make out some particulars, just like the wheels, distant sensing mast, and the MMRTG on the aft finish.”
— Robert Hogg, Perseverance Deputy Mission Supervisor
Take a look at a zoomed-in “enhanced” view beneath (maybe they need to have geared up Perseverance with a purple and white striped hat!)
The primary time Ingenuity noticed the rover throughout a flight was on 25 April 2021, throughout its third flight. At the moment it was a lot nearer—85 meters away.
From a information launch from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter just lately accomplished its eleventh flight on the Crimson Planet, snapping a number of images throughout its journey. Together with capturing the boulders, sand dunes, and rocky outcrops prevalent within the “South Séítah” area of Jezero Crater, a couple of of the pictures seize NASA’s Perseverance rover amid its first science marketing campaign.
Ingenuity started as a technological demonstration to show that powered, managed flight on Mars is feasible. It’s now an operations demonstration meant to analyze how a rotorcraft can add an aerial dimension to missions like Perseverance, scouting doable areas of scientific curiosity and providing detailed views of close by areas too hazardous for the rover to discover.
Learn the total information story right here, and be taught extra in regards to the Mars 2020 mission right here.
*Replace: Planetary scientist Thomas Appéré shared on Twitter his discovery of Perseverance in 4 totally different pictures (effectively the above picture and three others) captured by Ingenuity on 4 August. Very cool!
