‘Until we meet again’: The Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter snap a selfie as the copter prepares for its first flight on Mars that is compared to the ‘Wright Brothers’ moment on Earth

• NASA released an image snapped by Perseverance with Ingenuity on Mars
• The rover used its onboard camera to snap the selfie of the pair
• Ingenuity is about 13 feet from the rover and is preparing for its first flight
• The copter plans to fly on April 11 – a feat that determines the fate of its mission

As the Ingenuity helicopter prepares to make history by flying through Mars’ atmosphere, the Perseverance rover snapped a selfie of the pair to commemorate one of their last moments together.

NASA released the image Wednesday, which is a collection of 62 individual pictures taken by the rover as it looked down on the small copter that stood 13 feet away. 

Ingenuity is set to take its first flight April 11, which will see the copter take off, hover in place and then return for landing, and although the event will only last for 90 seconds it is a feat that determines the fate of the mission.

This will be the first vehicle to fly on another planet, which NASA likens to the Wright Brothers moment on Earth. 

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As the Ingenuity helicopter prepares to make history by flying through Mars’ atmosphere, the Perseverance rover snapped a selfie of the pair to commemorate one of their last moments together

Ingenuity made the 239 million-mile journey to Mars inside the belly of Perseverance until it was dropped to the dust Martian ground April 4.

NASA announced the following day that the $85 million drone survived its first night outside of its travel companion, allowing the American space agency to move ahead with their flight plans.  

Ingenuity is expected to soar Sunday, April 11 from a 33-by-33-foot piece of Martian real estate that is the first airfield on a another planet.

Once everything is a go, Perseverance will receive information from NASA to relay to the copter.

Ingenuity made the 239 million-mile journey to Mars inside the belly of Perseverance until it was dropped to the dust Martian ground April 4

Ingenuity is expected to soar Sunday, April 11 from a 33-by-33-foot piece of Martian real estate that is the first airfield on a another planet 

However, a number of factors have to be perfect for the event, including modeling of local wind patterns informed by measurements taken by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system aboard Perseverance. 

Ingenuity will run its rotors to 2,537 rpm and, if all final self-checks look good, lift off. 

The copter will climb about three feet per second (1 meter per second) and once it hits 10 feet (three meters), it will hover in place for 30 seconds before touching back down on the Martian surface.

A twitter user shared the iconic moment between Perseverance and Ingenuity as if the two were saying ‘Until we meet again’

This flight, although short, determines if Ingenuity is capable of carrying out the rest of its mission.

NASA likens first flight on another planet s to that of the Wright Brothers first flight on Earth. 

Farah Alibay, Mars Helicopter integration lead for the Perseverance rover, said in a briefing last month: ‘Most of all I think of it [Ingenuity] as an experimental aircraft and this started with the Wright Brothers who brought aerial mobility to travel here on earth in the same way we are hoping ingenuity on Mars.’ 

And to commemorate the first flight on Earth, Ingenuity is carrying a piece from the Wright Brothers’ plane. 

The copter will climb about three feet per second (1 meter per second) and once it hits 10 feet (three meters), it will hover in place for 30 seconds before touching back down on the Martian surface 

Several hours after the first flight has occurred, Perseverance will transmit to Earth Ingenuity’s first set of engineering data and, possibly, images and video from the rover’s Navigation Cameras and Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras. 

‘From the data downlinked that first evening after the flight, the Ingenuity team expects to be able to determine if its first attempt to fly at Mars was a success,’ NASA shared in a statement.

‘Flight test results will be discussed by the Ingenuity team in a media conference that same day.’

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