NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter stretches its legs, while Curiosity rover plays in a selfie

• NASA’s Curiosity rover used its robotic arm to take a selfie on Mars last week.

• Days later, the agency’s Ingenuity helicopter finally deployed its four legs.

• Photos from both events show NASA’s growing presence on the Red Planet.

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There is a wave of activity on Mars.

Last week, NASA’s Curiosity rover used its robotic arm to take an awe-inspiring selfie in front of Mont Mercou, a 20-foot-high rock formation. The photo, released Tuesday, offers a glimpse of the vast Martian landscape. About 2,300 miles away on the same planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter finally extended its four landing legs – and cameras captured that scene as well.

Ingenuity’s mission is to attempt the first controlled airplane flight on another planet. The helicopter traveled to Mars in the belly of the Perseverance rover, which landed in February. The rotorcraft is now able to land on the Martian surface, NASA revealed Tuesday – a feat that scientists have been waiting for months.

Ingenuity will likely be flying in a few weeks and could be deployed as early as April 8. But its flight – which is intended to be a technological demonstration that could pioneer a new method of planetary exploration – will be perilous. The helicopter is to take off into the thin atmosphere of Mars and survive freezing nighttime temperatures for 30 Martian days (roughly one Earth month).

“As with anything helicopter-related, this type of deployment has never been done before,” Farah Alibay, systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. “Once we start the deployment, there is no going back.”

Ingenuity hovers 5 inches above the Martian surface

Earlier this month, Perseverance dropped the guitar-shaped shield that protected Ingenuity, exposing the helicopter to Martian air for the first time. From there it had to be rotated out of its horizontal position under the rover using an electric motor. Ingenuity’s legs also had to be unfolded two at a time.

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NASA has called the process “reverse origami.”

Now Ingenuity is almost ready to drop the 5 inches to the ground and make its first contact with the Martian surface.

This last fall requires that the cord between the helicopter and Perseverance be cut; at the moment, they are connected by a single bolt and a dozen tiny electrical connectors.

“The most stressful day, at least for me, will be the last day, when we finally split the helicopter and drop Ingenuity to the ground,” Alibay said at a recent press briefing.

Once the ingenuity wears off, Perseverance must leave quickly to expose the helicopter’s solar panels so the drone can begin to charge. After its first charging session, Ingenuity will spend about a week testing its sensors and motors before it is ready to fly.

The helicopter will attempt up to five flights in total.

Its first flight will test if Ingenuity can successfully lift off a few feet from the ground, hover for about 30 seconds, then touch up. Each subsequent test will become more difficult than the last, culminating in a final flight that could carry the helicopter over 980 feet (300 meters) of Martian terrain.

Curiosity takes photos while climbing a 5 km mountain

Unlike Perseverance, NASA’s Curiosity rover is not a newcomer to the Martian landscape. The car-sized rover landed on the Red Planet in 2012.

Since 2014, Curiosity has been climbing the 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, located in a large impact basin known as Gale Crater. Along the way, the rover spotted strange rock formations and traces of ancient, long-lived lakes.

In early March, Curiosity began approaching Mont Mercou, a rocky outcrop named after a mountain in France.

The rover’s camera took two panoramas on March 4 while it was parked about 30 meters from the cliff. The photos provide a three-dimensional view of the sedimentary layers of the outcrop. The colors in the images represent the appearance of rocks during the day on Earth.

On March 16, a camera on the rover’s mast captured 11 more images of Mont Mercou. These were stitched together with 60 other images taken by Curiosity’s robotic arm on Friday.

The resulting “selfie” shows the entire body of the rover next to the rock formation.

It also shows Curiosity leaving a clay-rich region on Mount Sharp for a sulfate-rich region higher up the mountain. Scientists believe this change in landscape could help explain how Mars became a desert planet. The presence of clay signals an aqueous environment, whereas sulfates are usually formed when water evaporates.

To the left of the rover, you can spot a new borehole where Curiosity collected its 30th rock sample on Mars.

Currently, Curiosity has been traveling the Red Planet for signs of microbial life for more than 3,000 Martian days – almost nine years on Earth.

However, once the Ingenuity helicopter has completed its flights, Curiosity will no longer be alone in its mission. Perseverance is also designed to drive away germs – this time in the ancient lake bed called Jezero Crater.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed reporting.

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