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These selfies of NASA's Mars helicopter with the Perseverance rover are just amazing - Space.com
Apr 07, 2021 1 min, 8 secs

A gorgeous new photo mosaic shows NASA's Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter as you've never seen them before.

NASA also shared a similar view today from Perseverance, which it billed as a "selfie," showing an animated view of the rover looking at Ingenuity, then at its arm-mounted camera.

That mosaic was also constructed using 62 images, agency officials said.

"NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 feet (4 meters) away in this image from April 6, 2021, the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission," officials with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which oversees the Perseverance mission, wrote in an image description.

Video: Watch NASA's Mars helicopter unfold like a butterfly.

Mission team members are prepping Ingenuity for its first test flight, which could take place as soon as Sunday (April 11). .

If Ingenuity is successful, future Red Planet missions may commonly include helicopters, which could serve as scouts for rovers and gather data on their own, NASA officials have said.

There's even a chance that the rover could record audio of Ingenuity's flights using its two onboard microphones, NASA officials have said!

After Ingenuity's work is done, Perseverance will begin focusing in earnest on its own science mission.

This work, and Ingenuity's flights, will take place on the floor of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, where Perseverance and the helicopter landed together on Feb.

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