National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers made a 3D video of Ingenuity Mars Helicopters flight.
Sradha Subash A
credits: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
On 25th April NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter had its 3rd flight to the Martian skies. The moment was captured by a dual camera Mastcam-Z imager of NASA's perseverance rover. Justin Maki, an imaging scientist at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory in Southern California has guided his team in making a video from the images captured. NASA engineers created the flight in 3D, giving it a dramatic depth as the helicopter ascends, drifts and then zooms laterally off to the side- screen before returning for a pinpoint landing. This 3D video sequence gives us a sensation of standing on the surface of Mars, near the Perseverance rover and viewing the flight first hand.
The zoomable dual camera Mastcam-Z imager is located on the rover's mast or head, which produces images that enable the public to follow the rover's daily discoveries. Also the camera provides key data's for engineers to navigate the rover easily and for the scientists to choose interesting rocks to study.
Under the guidance of Justin Marki, team re-projected frames of the video for optimization of its view in an anaglyph. Anaglyph is an image seen in 3D when viewed with the colour filtered glasses. Maki started creating 3D imaging of Mars by processing images from NASA's Sojourner (first Mars rover in 1997) since he was a graduate student. Even Though, this is the first time he has created a real 3D video of an aircraft flying on Mars. Mastcam 3D video capability was made from Mars science laboratory MARDI (MARS Descent Imager), also he added that this capability can be reused in a new mission by acquiring 3D spectacular video of a helicopter flying above the Mars surface. 3D videos of helicopters are the most extensive 3D videos still from Mastcam-Z team. The operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument are led by Arizona State University in Tempe by working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
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Before planning the rover’s movements, rover’s drivers and robotic-arm operators understand how things are positioned on Mars by the help of a more sophisticated 3D system. According to Maki, a helicopter flying on Mars is a great demonstration of new technology for MARS exploration and with each flight the possibilities of exploring new things increase.
The third flight on April 25 was a record, with Ingenuity rising 16 feet (5 meters), then flying downrange 164 feet (50 meters) until Ingenuity travelled 873 feet (266 meters) on its fourth flight on April 30. Ingenuity completed its first one-way trip on its fifth flight which was on May 7. That day Ingenuity travelled 423 feet (129 meters) and reached an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) above its new landing field.
The flights began as a technology demonstration in order to prove that it is possible to launch powered, controlled flight on Mars. They will now serve as an operations demonstration, exploring how aerial scouting and other functions could aid future exploration of Mars.
Perseverance
Caltech in Pasadena, manages JPL for NASA which builds and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
The mission of Perseverance on Mars is to search for signs of ancient microbial life or simply, evidence of life existence (astrobiology). The rover's mission is to describe the planet's geology and past climate in order to pave the way for future exploration of Mars. As a result, its first objective is to collect and store Martian regolith and rock (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would be, sending spacecraft to Mars and collecting the sealed samples from Mars surface and returning them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach. This includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
Ingenuity
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL. Also, the technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters is managed by JPL. It has a huge support from NASA’s Science, Aeronautics Research, and Space Technology mission directorates. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided the significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. The design assistance and major vehicle components are provided by AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero and the Mars Helicopter Delivery System was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space.