Mars drone helicopter Ingenuity

For the first time, an extraterrestrial drone helicopter is set to launch with the Perseverance rover mission to Mars within the next two month. From Wikipedia, "Ingenuity is a robotic helicopter that is planned to be used to test the technology to scout interesting targets on Mars, and help plan the best driving route for future Mars rovers. The small drone helicopter is planned for deployment in 2021 from the Perseverance rover as part of the Mars 2020 mission." See, Mars Helicopter

 

The helicopter is designed to provide overhead images for scouting the path of Perseverance with approximately ten times the resolution of orbital images.

Edited June 18, 2020 by Glenn McCreery

Here are some photos from Ingenuity used to spot crashed gear used in the landing of the Perseverance rover landing.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-mars-helicopter-spots-gear-that-helped-perseverance-rover-land

 

"NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter recently surveyed both the parachute that helped the agency’s Perseverance rover land on Mars and the cone-shaped backshell that protected the rover in deep space and during its fiery descent toward the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021. Engineers with the Mars Sample Return program asked whether Ingenuity could provide this perspective. What resulted were 10 aerial color images taken April 19 during Ingenuity’s Flight 26."

In general, I think drone photography is becoming increasingly important for (terrestrial) documentary purposes. All drone photos give us a completely different perspective compared to photos taken at ground level. Initially. I thought that drone photos were 'innovative' in terms of giving us a completely different perspective. Drone photos have since been widely used on different media outlets in different programs. But I've gradually realized that drones have become an essential form of documentary photography that provide us with photos in situations in which it's simply not safe for 'ground-level photographers' to operate. Even 'photography drones' are sometimes shot down.

Glenn , thanks for the link , now WHY do we have to endure wars ?.