Two Views of Ingenuity's 59th Flight

This video combines two perspectives of the 59th flight of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The frame on the left shows video from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover; the frame on the right is footage taken by Ingenuity's downward-pointing black-and-white Navigation Camera, or Navcam, with the helicopter's shadow visible on the Martian surface. The 142-second flight, which took place on Sept 16, 2023, was intended to check Martian wind patterns. The rotorcraft hovered at different altitudes: 13 feet (4 meters), 26 feet (8 meters), 39 feet (12 meters), 52 feet (16 meters), and 66 feet (20 meters). The highest altitude achieved in this flight was at that time a record for Ingenuity. The helicopter also demonstrated during Flight 59 that it could land at speeds 25% slower than originally designed. The video clip from Perseverance was captured by the rover's Mastcam-Z imager from about 180 feet (55 meters) away. Shown here is an enhanced-color view that exaggerates subtle color differences in the scene to show more detail. The inset video shows black-and-white imagery taken by Ingenuity's downward-pointing Navigation Camera (Navcam) during the flight. The video ends shortly after the helicopter's final hover at 13 feet (4 meters) as it begins its final descent to the surface. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth 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. Movies available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26078