NASAThe Ingenuity helicopter can be seen taking off, hovering and then landing on the surface of Mars on April 19, 2021. The Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover made a video of the flight of the helicopter. The video is presented here in side-by-side formats both enhanced to show a plume of dust swirling during takeoff and again on landing.
The view on the left uses motion filtering to show where dust was detected during takeoff and landing, and the view on the right is improved with the motion filtering. Scientists use this image processing to detect dust devils as they pass Mars rovers. An additional version of the video includes a timer that counts down to launch and then counts down to landing.
A ghostly “cutout” of the helicopter is visible in every side-by-side format; that is an artifact related to digital processing.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided important flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development.
Arizona State University in Tempe is leading the Mastcam-Z instrument operations in conjunction with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.