Figure 1

This image shows the flight zone of NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter from the perspective of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The flight zone is the area within which the helicopter will attempt to fly.

An annotated version shows the locations of the helipad (the innermost green box where the rover will deploy the helicopter), the airfield (the next largest green box, a region where the helicopter will always take off and return), and the boundaries of the flight zone (the outermost green lines).

The image was taken by the Navigation Cameras aboard the Perseverance rover.

The Mars helicopter technology demonstration activity is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate, the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate.

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.

For more about Ingenuity: go.nasa.gov/ingenuity.

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