English: PIA24593: First Aerial Color Image of Mars By An Aerial Vehicle - The Ingenuity Helicopter - April 22, 2021

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24593

This is the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was in its second flight. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured it with its horizon facing color terrain camera on April 22, 2021. At the time this image, Ingenuity was 17ft (5.2m) above the surface and pitching or changing the camera’s region of view upward so the helicopter could begin its 7ft (2.1m) sideways shift to the west away from the rover. The image, as well as the inset showing a picture of a portion of the tracks the Perseverance Mars rover and Mars surface features, demonstrates the utility of scouting Martian terrain from an aerial perspective.

The winding parallel discolorations in the surface reveal the tread of the six-wheeled rover. Perseverance itself is located top center, just out frame at Van Zyl Overlook. Wright Brothers Field is in the vicinity of the helicopter’s shadow, bottom center, with the actual point of takeoff of the helicopter just below the image. A portion of the landing pads on two of the helicopter’s four landing legs can be seen in on the left and right sides of the image, and a small portion of the horizon can be seen at the upper right and left corners.

Mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed approximately 22 degree below the horizon, Ingenuity’s high-resolution terrain color camera contains a 4208-by-3120-pixel sensor.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, Snapdragon, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. The Mars Helicopter Delivery System was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Space Systems, Denver.