Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flight is up in 3D – NASA [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

•  NASA released a video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s flight to Mars in 3D.
• The Mastcam-Z-instrument, which is a zoomable dual camera on Perseverance, produced a video that has been rendered in 3-D by NASA’s scientists.
• According to NASA, the video features firsthand navigation chronicling Mars’ potential activities such as microbial life.

Back in April, NASA’s Ingenuity rotorcraft marked such a historic moment when it successfully completed its first ever controlled power flight on Mars. Today, NASA released the actual video of the flight in high-definition 3D image.

According to NASA, the video features firsthand navigation chronicling Mars’ potential activities such as microbial life.

“When NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took to the Martian skies on its third flight on April 25, the agency’s Perseverance rover was there to capture the historic moment. Now NASA engineers have rendered the flight in 3D, lending dramatic depth to the flight as the helicopter ascends, hovers, then zooms laterally off-screen before returning for a pinpoint landing,” NASA said.

Thanks to the Mastcam-Z instrument, the Perseverance Mars rover’s zoomable dual-camera, as it produced and rendered significant imagery, providing an extensive, key information on fossils and ancient microbes – the rover’s main mission.

Further, the rover’s arm is now conducting major science operations, such as close examination of the Red Planet’s terrain and environment conditions.

Justin Maki, a JPL imaging scientist was at the frontline of putting up the imagery altogether, reprojecting various frames for better, high-def viewing.

“The Mastcam-Z video capability was inherited from the Mars Science Laboratory MARDI (Mars Descent Imager) camera,” Maki said. “To be reusing this capability on a new mission by acquiring 3D video of a helicopter flying above the surface of Mars is just spectacular.”

With Ingenuity’s demonstration on Mars of the possibility of a rotorcraft technology, NASA believes that such technology is ready for a more sophisticated, more ambitious missions on the planet’s terrain. Maki and his team have been reviewing still 3D images to map out rover drives.

“A helicopter flying on Mars opens a new era for Mars exploration. It’s a great demonstration of a new technology for exploration,” Maki said. “With each flight we open up more possibilities.”

Source: New York Post