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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter captured this image of the tracks made by the Perseverance rover on its ninth flight on July 5. Part of the helicopter’s landing gear is visible at the top left. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Ingenuity’s ninth flight provided imagery that will help the Perseverance rover team develop their science plan for the future.
Images taken on July 5 by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter on its ambitious ninth flight gave scientists and engineers working with the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover an unprecedented opportunity to explore the road ahead. The ingenuity provided new insight into the origin and end of the various rock layers, with each layer serving as a time capsule to explain how the conditions of the old climate changed there. The flight also revealed obstacles the rover might have to navigate as it explores Jezero Crater.
During the flight – designed to test the helicopter’s ability to serve as an aerial scout – Ingenuity flew over a dune field nicknamed “Séítah”. Perseverance makes a detour south around these dunes, which would be too risky for the six-wheeled rover to attempt to cross.
This annotated image of the Jezero crater represents the routes of the first scientific campaign of Perseverance (yellow sharps) as well as its second (light yellow sharps). Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
Ingenuity’s color images, taken at a height of about 33 feet (10 meters), offer the rover team much more detail than the orbiter images (like the one above) they use. usually for route planning. While a camera like HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can detect rocks about 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter, missions typically rely on rover images. to see smaller rocks or terrain features.
“Once a rover gets close enough to a location, we get ground-scale images that we can compare to orbital images,” said Ken Williford, deputy scientist on the Perseverance Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the NASA in Southern California. “With Ingenuity, we now have this mid-scale imagery that fills the resolution gap nicely.”
Below are a few images from Ingenuity, which completed the long journey back to Earth on July 8.
Raised ridges
Ingenuity (its shadow can be seen at the bottom of this image) offered a high-resolution glimpse of the rock features nicknamed “Raised Ridges”. They belong to a system of fractures, which often serve as pathways for fluid to flow underground.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter spotted the spot, nicknamed “Raised Ridges,” on its ninth flight on July 5. Scientists hope to visit “Raised Ridges” with the Perseverance rover in the future. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Here in the Jezero crater, a lake existed billions of years ago. While spying on the ridges on images of Martian orbiters, scientists wondered if water could have passed through these fractures at some point, dissolving minerals that could help feed ancient microbial colonies. This would make it a prime location to look for signs of ancient life – and possibly to drill a sample.
The samples taken by Perseverance will eventually be deposited on Mars for a future mission that would bring them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
“Our current plan is to visit Raised Ridges and investigate closely,” Williford said. “The helicopter images are much better resolution than the orbital ones we were using. Studying them will allow us to make sure that visiting these ridges is important to the team.
Dunes
Sand dunes like the ones in this image keep rover drivers like Olivier Toupet of JPL awake at night: up to their knees or waist, they could easily block the two-ton rover. After landing in February, the scientists at Perseverance asked if it was possible to cross this terrain in a straight line; Toupet’s answer was a categorical no.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter flew over this dune field in an area of Jezero crater known as “Séítah” on its ninth flight on July 5, 2021. Part of the helicopter’s landing gear is visible at the top to the left. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
“Sand is a big concern,” said Toupet, who leads the team of mobility experts who plan Perseverance journeys. “If we go down into a dune, we might sink into it and not be able to get out. “
Toupet is also at the helm of Perseverance’s new AutoNav feature, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to autonomously drive the rover greater distances than could be achieved otherwise. While effective at avoiding rocks and other hazards, AutoNav cannot detect sand, so human drivers should always set “no-go zones” around areas that could trap the rover.
Rocky substrate
Without Ingenuity, visible in silhouette at the bottom of this next image, the scientists at Perseverance would never have been able to see this section of Séítah so clearly: it is too sandy for Perseverance to visit. The unique view offers enough detail to inspect these rocks and gain a better understanding of this area of the Jezero crater.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter flew over these sand dunes and rocks on its ninth flight on July 5, 2021. While the agency’s Perseverance Mars can’t risk getting stuck in this sand, scientists are still able to learn more about this region by studying it from The Images of Ingenuity. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
As the rover makes its way around the dune field, it can do what the team calls a “toe dip” in some scientifically compelling locations with interesting bedrock. While Toupet and his team wouldn’t attempt to dive here, recent Ingenuity footage will allow them to plan potential dive paths in other regions along the route of Perseverance’s first science campaign.
“The helicopter is an extremely valuable asset for rover planning as it provides high resolution images of the terrain we want to cross,” Toupet said. “We can better assess the size of the dunes and where the bedrock is emerging. This is great information for us; this helps identify areas the rover can pass through and whether some high value science targets are achievable.
Learn more about the mission
A key focus of Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including looking for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the past geology and climate of the planet, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (shattered rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples on the surface and return them to Earth for further analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon-to-Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., Built and manages the operations of the Perseverance rover.
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by the Science, Aeronautical Research and Space Technology mission directions of NASA. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical support during the development of Ingenuity. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm and SolAero also provided design assistance and major components of the vehicle. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.
JPL manages the MRO mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado.
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