Mars Helicopter at Three Forks

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter near the base of Jezero Crater’s river delta in this image taken Dec. 18, 2022, the 650th day, or sol, of the mission. At the time the picture was taken, the helicopter was about 1,115 feet (340 meters) northeast of the rover.

The image was acquired by the Mastcam-Z’s left camera using an RGB color filter and the middle out of its seven zoom settings – a focal length of 63 millimeters.

Figure A is an annotated version of the image pointing out the location of the Mars Helicopter in the distance.

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.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Neils Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

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