NASA’s latest Mars rover used a camera at the end of its robot arm to take this shot of itself with the Ingenuity helicopter nearby.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 4 meters away from us in this image from April 6, 2021, the 46th Mars Day, or sol, of the mission. Persistence captured the image using a camera called WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering), part of the instrument SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), located at the end of the robot arm of the rover.
Perseverance’s selfie with ingenuity was stitched together from 62 individual images taken while the rover was looking at the helicopter, and again while looking at the WATSON camera. Videos explaining how NASA’s perseverance and curiosity bikes take their selfies can be found here.
Once the team is ready to embark on the first flight, Perseverance receives the final flight instructions from JPL mission controllers to Ingenuity. Several factors will determine the exact time for the flight, including the modeling of local wind patterns informed by measurements taken by the MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer) instrument aboard Perseverance. Ingenuity will turn its rotors to 2,537 rpm, and if all final self-checks look good, it will pull up. At a speed of about 3 feet per second (1 meter per second), the helicopter will soar up to 30 feet (3 meters) above the surface for up to 30 seconds. Then Ingenuity will descend and touch the Martian surface again.
Hours after the first flight, Perseverance Ingenuity’s first set of engineering data and possibly photos and videos from the navigator cameras and Mastcam-Z, some zoomable cameras, will shut down. From the data that was interrupted the first night after the flight, the Ingenuity team expects to be able to determine if its first attempt to fly to Mars was a success. The results of the flight test will be discussed by the Ingenuity team on the same day.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has built and managed operations and perseverance for the agency. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. WATSON was built by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego, and is jointly managed by MSSS and JPL.
The demonstration activity of Mars helicopter technology is supported by NASA’s Directorate of Science Mission, Directorate of Aeronautical Research Mission and Directorate of Space Technology.
An important goal for Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the geology and climate of the planet, pave the way for the exploration of the Red Planet by humans, and be the first mission to collect Mars rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) and place them in the closet. .
Subsequent NASA missions, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA’s exploration approach from Moon to Mars, which includes Artemis missions to the moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
For more information on perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
For more information on ingenuity:
go.nasa.gov/engtheid
News Media Contacts
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-2433
[email protected]
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
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