Mars helicopter Ingenuity spies Perseverance rover during 54th Red Planet flight (photo, video)
By Mike Wall published about 15 hours ago
The sortie occurred on Aug. 3.
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity just snapped a photo of its Red Planet partner.
Ingenuity captured an image of NASA's Perseverance rover on Aug. 3, during the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper's 54th Mars flight.
Perseverance is nearly out of frame at the top of the photo, which Ingenuity took when it was about 16 feet (5 meters) above the red dirt.
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter snapped this photo of the Perseverance rover during its 54th flight, on Aug. 3, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Unlike previous sorties, the Aug. 3 flight wasn't a scouting run to aid Perseverance's science activities. It lasted just 24 seconds, reached a maximum altitude of 16 feet and covered no ground laterally, according to Ingenuity's flight log.
The mission team designed this short and simple hop in an attempt to help understand what happened during Ingenuity's previous flight, which was cut short unexpectedly.
That July 22 sortie was supposed to last 136 seconds and feature several complicated maneuvers. However, Ingenuity stayed aloft for just 74 seconds, touching down after something triggered its "flight-contingency program."
More:
https://www.space.com/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-perseverance-photo-54th-flight
= new reply since forum marked as read
