The Ingenuity Mars helicopter continues to provide us with new perspectives on the Red Planet.
The 4-pound Ingenuity photographed the parachute and backshell that allowed it and NASA's Perseverance rover to land inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021 during its most recent flight, which took place on April 19.
According to Space.com, his was not a coincidental encounter. The Ingenuity team was tasked with imaging Perseverance's landing gear in order to aid the joint NASA-European Space Agency Mars sample-return mission, which hopes to bring the material collected by Perseverance to Earth as soon as 2033.
NASA JPL said that Ingenuity paid a visit to the wreckage on its 26th flight which happened to be the one-year anniversary of the little helicopter's first arrival on Mars.
It was noted that Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly in another planet's atmosphere. The helicopter was supposed to fly five times as a technology demonstration, but NASA is now deploying it as an airborne scout to help the Perseverance rover with its science mission.
It Was Not the First Time the Parachute and Backshell Were Photographed
Meanwhile, as per NASA JPL, the Perseverance rover has previously photographed the parachute and backshell from a distance. However, those acquired by the rotorcraft from an aerial perspective reveal more detail.
The photographs could aid future spacecraft landings, such as the Mars Sample Return Lander, which is part of a multimission operation to return Perseverance's samples of Martian rocks, atmosphere, and sediment to Earth for further investigation.
The flyover by the Ingenuity helicopter was requested by NASA engineers working on the Mars Sample Return program, which aspires to send Martian rock specimens back to Earth.
The 10 color photographs will allow engineers to assess the state of the rear shell and parachute, providing additional information on how they performed when the Perseverance rover arrived on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.
Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and former Perseverance systems engineer Ian Clark said that "Perseverance had the best-documented Mars landing in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflation to touchdown," but noted that Ingenuity's photographs "offer a different vantage point."
"If they either reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked or provide even one dataset of engineering information we can use for Mars Sample Return planning, it will be amazing. And if not, the pictures are still phenomenal and inspiring," Clark added.
Space Flight Now reported that the components of the parachute visible to the Ingenuity helicopter looked to be undamaged by the supersonic airflow encountered during descent last year.
NASA engineers said they will spend several weeks reviewing the imagery before drawing any conclusions.
More Plans To Investigate the Red Planet
The 1-ton, plutonium-powered Perseverance rover, as reported by Space Flight Now, is on the first leg of the multi-launch Mars Sample Return program, which aims to collect samples for return to Earth.
NASA and the European Space Agency intend to send a series of spacecraft to Mars later this decade to collect Perseverance's samples, launch them off the Red Planet and into space, and then return the specimens to Earth for study in "sophisticated" terrestrial labs.
Ingenuity will aid mission planners in determining which pathways the rover should follow in order to investigate the fan-shaped delta.
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