NASA's Mars Helicopter Spots Gear That Helped Perseverance Rover Land

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter recently surveyed both the parachute that helped the agency’s Perseverance rover land on Mars and the cone-shaped backshell that protected the rover in deep space and during its fiery descent toward the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021. Engineers with the Mars Sample Return program asked whether Ingenuity could provide this perspective. What resulted were 10 aerial color images taken April 19 during Ingenuity’s Flight 26.

“NASA extended Ingenuity flight operations to perform pioneering flights such as this,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s team lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Every time we’re airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve. Mars Sample Return’s reconnaissance request is a perfect example of the utility of aerial platforms on Mars.”

Entry, descent, and landing on Mars is fast-paced and stressful, not only for the engineers back on Earth, but also for the vehicle enduring the gravitational forces, high temperatures, and other extremes that come with entering Mars’ atmosphere at nearly 12,500 mph (20,000 kph). The parachute and backshell were previously imaged from a distance by the Perseverance rover.

We spy with our little eyes…rover landing gear!
During the #MarsHelicopter’s 26th flight, it took photos of the entry, descent, & landing gear @NASAPersevere needed to safely land on Mars. You can see the protective backshell & massive dusty parachute. https://t.co/1r5uoc5FyM pic.twitter.com/ePlEASIrr0

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 27, 2022

The Perseverance rover touched down safely in Jezero Crater, a dried-up lakebed, where scientists hope to find signs of ancient microbial life. Currently, the rover is collecting soil samples from Mars to send them back to Earth on a future human mission. These images offer a great opportunity for scientists to plan the landing of the future mission.

“NASA extended Ingenuity flight operations to perform pioneering flights such as this. Every time we're airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity's team lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, in a statement.

The rover had previously imaged the parachute and backshell from a distance but those images lacked aerial perspective, which these photographs provide.

May 02, 2022