A few days ago he Mars Helicopter Ingenuity its already 51. Flight completed. The autonomous helicopter rose 12 meters in height and photographed the landscape around a hill christened “Mount Julian”. NASA could not have chosen a better day for the planned flight. Blue skies and a rocky, gently rolling desert landscape almost give the impression that the recording came from the earth.
Perseverance in stone look
One of the images that NASA has now released turns out to be true search picture. The Shadow of Ingenuity is relatively easy to spot. It gets more difficult when you go Perseverance Keeping an eye out, the Mars rover that landed Ingenuity on Earth’s neighboring planet in February 2021.
At this magnification, Perseverance is more visible
© NASA/JPL-Caltech
The fate of the EDL
But there is also a very small, triangular piece of debris to see. This comes from the “Entry, Descent and Landing” system used to deploy Perseverance (with Ingenuity on board) to Mars. The EDL consisted of a capsule housing the rover and a heat shield needed for entry into the Martian atmosphere.
Triangular piece of debris from the EDL
© NASA/JPL-Caltech
debris from the crash
Parachutes were ejected from the capsule. In the final leg of the landing, Perseverance was lowered from the capsule on 20-meter-long ropes while it was airborne using thrusters and then crashed further away.
