NASA’s Creativity Helicopter, the first probe to fly on another planet, captured images of the landing gear that helped it and accompany it, the Persevering Rover, land on Mars in February 2021. NASA shared the photos, saying the helicopter was captured in the wreckage during its 26th flight on the planet. the Red. Images showed the dusty canopy that helped Persevere descend on the surface of Mars and the conical back cover that protected the $2.4 billion robotic mission as it moved incredibly fast through deep space as well as into the Martian atmosphere.
The entry, descent and landing on Mars is fast-paced and grueling as the rover has to withstand gravitational forces, high temperatures, and other operational challenges that come with entering the Martian atmosphere at 20,000 km/h. NASA said the images were taken on April 19, the first anniversary of the helicopter’s first flight.
“We’re spying with our little eyes… rover landing gear!” During Flight 26 of the Mars Helicopter, I took photos of the entry, descent, and landing of the perseverance gear needed to land safely on Mars. “You can see the protective back shell and the huge dusty canopy,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the mission, said in a tweet on Twitter.
The tenacity chariot has landed safely at Jezero Crater, a dry lake bed, where scientists hope to find signs of ancient microbial life. The rover is currently collecting soil samples from Mars to send back to Earth on a future human mission. These images provide a great opportunity for scientists to plan for the landing of a future mission.
NASA has expanded its Creative Flight operations to make pioneering flights like this one. Every time we fly up, creativity covers new ground and offers perspective that a previous planetary mission couldn’t achieve,” Teddy Zanitos, Ingenuity team leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement.
The rover has previously photographed the canopy and the back cover from a distance, but those images lack the aerial perspective that these images provide.