Two Views of a High-Altitude Flight for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

As NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter made its 59th flight on Mars – achieving its second highest altitude while taking pictures of this flight – the Perseverance Mars rover was watching. See two perspectives of this 142-second flight that reached an altitude of 66 feet (20 meters). This flight took place on Sept.16, 2023.

In this side-by-side video, you’ll see the perspective from Perseverance on the left, which was captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z imager from about 180 feet (55 meters) away. On the right, you’ll see the perspective from Ingenuity, which was taken by its downward-pointing Navigation Camera (Navcam). During Flight 59, Ingenuity hovered at different altitudes to check Martian wind patterns. The highest altitude achieved in this flight was 66 feet. At the time, that was a record for the helicopter.

Ingenuity is the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet. It has completed 66 flights since April 19, 2021. That far exceeds its originally planned technology demonstration of up to five flights. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages operations for Ingenuity and Perseverance. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument on Perseverance, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

Not only did Ingenuity break a record with this flight, it was part of an experimental test to help teams design the next generation of Martian helicopters. Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/49LwdDk

For more information on Ingenuity, go to: https://mars.nasa.gov/ingenuity

For a log of all Ingenuity’s flights, go to: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Flight-Log

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS