The Ingenuity Mars helicopter gives us Red Planet views we have never seen before.
Ingenuity took a picture of the parachute and backshell that helped it land inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater.
This was not a possibility. The Ingenuity team was asked to take pictures of Perseverance's landing gear to aid the NASA-European Space Agency Mars sample-return project, which aims to haul the material that Perseverance collects to Earth, perhaps as early as 2033
The Ingenuity helicopter is still on Mars a year later.
Perseverance had the best- documented Mars landing in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflation to touchdown, according to Ian Clark, a former Perseverance systems engineer.
Clark said that Ingenuity's images offer a different perspective. If not, the pictures are still amazing.
The conical backshell helped Perseverance survive the long journey from the Red Planet to Earth as well as the brief but scorching trip through Mars. The biggest parachute ever deployed on Mars was 70.5 feet wide. It slowed the descent of the rover, which was lowered to Jezero's floor by a sky crane.
The good health of Perseverance and Ingenuity show was due to the backshell and parachute. Initial analyses of the new Ingenuity photos show that the landing gear held up well despite the stresses they experienced. The backshell hit the Martian surface at about 78 mph, or 126 kph, on landing day, so it is unsurprising that it is in pieces.
The backshell's protective coating appears to have remained intact during Mars atmospheric entry. JPL officials wrote in a statement that many of the suspension lines connecting the backshell to the parachute are visible.
JPL officials said that the canopy shows no signs of damage from the supersonic air flow during inflation, even though only one-third of the chute is visible in Ingenuity's images.
Ingenuity took 10 photos of the backshell and parachute during the April 19 flight. JPL officials said the helicopter flew at an altitude of 26 feet (8 m) and traveled a total of 1,181 feet on the sortie.
Ingenuity did a lot of maneuvering, but we were confident because there was complicated maneuvering on flights 10, 12 and 13
On the one-year anniversary of its history-making first Martian sortie, Ingenuity flew on the 26th.
Ingenuity is a technology demonstration, originally tasked with a five-flight mission to show that aerial exploration is possible on Mars. The helicopter is now on an extended mission that pushes the boundaries of Red Planet flight and serves as a scout for the life-hunting, sample-collecting Perseverance.
The remnants of a river delta that existed billions of years ago have recently been reached by perseverance. The area may hold evidence of ancient Red Planet life and the team is excited to sample it. Ingenuity will be a big part of this effort.
JPL officials wrote in the statement that Ingenuity's first orders may be to help determine which of two dry river channels Perseverance should climb to reach the top of the delta.
Data provided by the helicopter will help the Perseverance team assess potential science targets.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There, a book about the search for alien life. You can follow him on social media. Follow us on social media.
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