Ingenuity's First Color Snap

This low-resolution view of the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater and a portion of two wheels of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover was captured by the color imager aboard the agency's Ingenuity Mars helicopter. The image was taken on April 3, 2021, while the solar-powered rotorcraft was still beneath the rover after being deployed. A few higher-resolution images are expected to be acquired by this imager during each of Ingenuity's test flights.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and manages operations of Perseverance and Ingenuity for the agency. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. The Mars helicopter technology demonstration activity is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate, the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate.

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.

For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.

For more about Ingenuity: go.nasa.gov/ingenuity.